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Abstract
In this article, I argue that collaborative photography offers dynamic potential for imag(in)ing trans intimate partnerships beyond the authority of textual representation. I present five photographic and narrative case studies, spanning a range of trans partnerships in the UK, to demonstrate some of the complex ways in which bodies, genders, sexualities, and time intersect in trans intimacy. I argue that the photographs create an imaginative resource, both for the people depicted in the photographs and for those viewing the photographs, providing new possibilities for thinking about trans partnerships, expanding the ways in which trans intimate partnerships are imag(in)ed, and opening up new spaces of possibility for gender and sexual identities.
Notes
1. 1. Available at http://www.itv.com/presscentre/mydadisawoman/week09/default.html.
2. 2. Quoted from Selgado: The Spectre of Hope, Arena, BBC2, May 30, 2001.
3. 3. In addition to instigating photographic projects, I am frequently asked to take pictures by individuals and organizations in the queer/trans communities to which I belong. These requests are made because my photography is based on reciprocity. Indeed, the photographs reproduced herein are from a larger photography book project that I am carrying out with the trans organization TransBareAll, at their invitation. Lee (pictured in this article) initially took part in a three-year Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellowship project (2007–2010) that I was carrying out. Following this, he invited me to work with TransBareAll on the current project on trans relationships. Similarly, Jenny-Anne and Elen took part in the Fellowship project and later asked me to take photographs at private trans social events, which were for their use only, and to be their wedding photographer. These and numerous other requests are made because of relationships of trust that have been built over years (since 1999) and a body of work that I had already completed on issues of living as a trans person (Davidmann, Citation2003, Citation2006, Citation2010). The photograph constitutes one “point” in the process of reciprocity, collaboration, and dialogue.
4. 4. For descriptions of identities that similarly demonstrate the difficulties of naming, see Cromwell, Citation1999; Hines, Citation2010; Sanger, Citation2010.
5. 5. Polyamorous partnerships differ to monogamous relationships in that they involve more than two people. Polyamorous partnerships are arranged with the knowledge and consent of all partners, and they can vary considerably in terms of how they are configured. In this article, two examples are given.
6. 6. In contrast to how Rob views the idea of giving birth, another participant, Jason, gave birth as a trans man in 2010. Photographs of Jason pregnant, and with his partner and child, were presented in a keynote paper coauthored with Nikki Sullivan, Somatechnical Figurations: Kinship, Bodies, Affects, Södertörn University, Stockholm, 2012. Three of these photographs were also exhibited in Trans* Homo: Of lesbian trans* gays and other normalities, Schwules Museum, Berlin, 2012.
7. 7. While some trans men have taken up the term tranny with the aim of achieving greater visibility, many trans women have rejected it. The term is the cause of contentious debates within trans communities. The term has a history connected to transphobia, and many trans women have been subjected to transphobic hostility and violence because they are more visible.