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PHOTOS: The Bare Truths of Trans Men

PHOTOS: The Bare Truths of Trans Men

Transpose_leadx400

Jean-Francois Bouchard's Transpose invites viewers to look beyond society's assumptions about trans men's lives.

Transpose_shayne-oliver-alexAbove: Shayne, Oliver, Alex, and Julian

Jean-Francois Bouchard knows that there are immediate places people's where minds may jump when they learn his latest photography project, Transpose, is a collection of shirtless trans men.

But for the Montreal-based artist, the exposed body is all about his subjects' vulnerable humanity, and not in any way about prurient details about body shapes or medical histories.

"I didn't want this to be sexual or shocking," he explained in a recent interivew with Canada'sNational Post. "I wanted this to be about the personal stories. I could have shot this in a far more shocking way -- scars, things like that. But I didn't want to take over the personal stories that are more important."

Fittingly, the spare, deceptively powerful portraits are accompanied by personal statements from his subjects, a diverse group of young and middle-aged trans men with whom Bouchard, a cisgender (nontrans) man, worked after three years of research. A statement by subject Alex reads simply, "[My] tattoo means strong because you have to be. Five and a half years of weekly injections, two surgeries, and I now finally feel comfortable in my body."

As the video below shows, the portraits themselves are human-size, inviting the viewer to relate to them person-to-person, lean in, and perhaps, as Bouchard hopes, begin to understand that each person's truth is "more than meets the eye."

See more from Transpose, now on display at Montreal's Arsenal Contemporary Art, below.

See a gallery of photos by Jean-Francois Bouchard on the following pages >>>

Transpose_julian-camire_0 Julian

Transpose_alex-seelye_8fev2014_0 Alex

Transpose_antoyneokhalid-abd-allah_15fev2014_0 Antoyneo Khalid

Transpose_etienne-j Etienne

Transpose_fae-gibson_22juillet2013_0 Fae

Transpose_felix-lapierre_1fev2014_0 Felix

Transpose_isaac-duren_7fev2014_0 Isaac

Transpose_james-forester_31mai2013_0 James

Transpose_jay-evans_26oct2013_0 Jay

Transpose_jody-rose-helfand_15fev2014_0 Jody Rose

Transpose_joshua-klipp_28janv2012_0 Joshua

Transpose_julian-roy_7fev2014_0 Julian

Transpose_laurie-loa_15fev2014_0 Laurie

Transpose_lee-penman_26janv2014_0 Lee

Transpose_oliver-burns_8fev2014_0 Oliver

Transpose_samuel-poliquin_8fev2014_0 Samuel

Transpose_sebastien-lebel_1fev2014_0 Sebastien

Transpose_shayne-ivany_8fev2014_0 Shayne

Transpose_zacchary-dufour_8fev2014_0 Zacchary

Transpose_zion-rogers_15fev2014_0 Zion

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