After many long months on hiatus, Bristol Trans Portraits is finally back!
It was November when I last posted any new portraits, and I’m so, so excited that the project is finally on the move again! It’s been so fulfilling to get back into doing a project which I founded myself, and which I’m really passionate about. Here are a few bits of news about the project, along with a sneak peak at August’s portraits!
Back in May, I launched new social pages for the project. Bristol Trans Portraits now has an instagram and a facebook page, and I’ve been busy making infographics for online use!
Following on from these, I launched the new Bristol Trans Portraits website about two weeks ago. I have to say I’m really proud of how it looks, so please do be sure to check it out if you haven’t already! Each participant now has their own page on the website; it features lots of photos, accompanied by written text, where they share their experiences of being transgender.
Finally, we have a new Patreon page. I’ve set this up because I’m currently running Bristol Trans Portraits on a voluntary basis; while that’s always been a really important aspect of the project, I’m getting to a point where I want to be able to prioritise it, and also expand even further. In particular, I want to hold an exhibition and release a photobook at some point next year. I also want to be able to use some of the trans portraits materials to produce educational resources.
I don’t have the resources to do any of this without funding. So, if you love the project and what it's doing, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon. You can support us for as little as £2 per month, and we've included a ton of benefits to say thank you, from sneak peaks (like the one you’re about to see!) to a printed photobook!
Last of all, I’ve got new portraits coming very, very soon – only three days away, in fact! Allow me to introduce you to Gabe, who was an absolute pleasure to meet, and such a natural on camera. He’ll be featuring on socials throughout August!
After creating all these shiny new accounts, I’ve been wondering whether I should keep posting and promoting Bristol Trans Portraits to my personal feeds, or not. Initially I had the urge to lean in to the fact that the project now has its own space, but the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve decided I’d also like to keep posting photos to my own instagram account and website.
I have a lot of followers on @nicky.takes.photos who are photographers themselves, who aren’t necessarily following me because of my trans-related posts, but purely from a photography standpoint. Many of them are not following the new Trans Portraits account, so posting about the project to my own feeds still seems like a good way of using my platform to promote trans visibility.
This project has always been about making trans people more visible, and photography is an industry that could afford to learn more about representing trans people. If posting to my personal social accounts can help with this, then I’m definitely going to keep doing it.