Andrew/Andrea. Diptych, 2008-2009

From the Series Diversity/Adversity.

Using extreme and intimate close-ups, this project aims to destabilize and subvert conventional notions of masculinity and feminity to perturb the viewers. The series investigates and confronts some of the cultural and social stereotypes underlying gender, opting to focus on the beauty, sensitivity and vulnerabilities found in the transgender community.
This series is composed by extreme close-ups of people who agreed to pose in natural light against a white or black background – without other technical aids and with respect for the desire of those who posed to present their best side.
The aim of those photographed set forth a challenge for the viewer by suggesting the necessity of identifying the gender of the people in the photographs. The objective of this series is to attract the viewer by means of the dimensional scale of the faces, which permits the detailing of the tiniest physical modification or adulteration. Or, where appropriate, the perfection of the process of transformation at the least fosters doubt about the concept of identity, which would denote an advance toward understanding the adversities that these people have had to face in their aims of achieving congruence between their physical identity and their real inner self.