#83 CAMERA book review: Kike Arnal - Bordered Lives: Transgender Portraits from Mexico

Bordered Lives by Quique Arnal. Transgender portraits from Mexico. I love this book. It's a book I picked up on Oxfam actually. It was very a great find. It is over 100 and there's about 184 pages in it. Its size is 8 by 10 which is as you were probably just around an A4. I know it was an A10, and a little bit smaller than it turns. It's a nice size, it's nice and flexible, and a lovely cover. I like the eyes wide open and eyes wide shut in it. It's quite a sort of striking beginning for such a sort of an important subject matter. It charts the sort of lives of five different people. I think there's some lovely stuff in here, and I just think it's a lovely book. It was published, it was published, let's have a look. The essay is by John Stryker, and I think Susan Stryker was, could have been the editor, but I'll check that in a second. It's published by thenewpress.com, and I need to get a date on this. I am not sure on the date. Here we go, it was published in 2014, easily available on Amazon. I think it's an interesting book for somebody who wants to maybe follow this and do sort of a project in their own world on people who do similar things or part of similar things or who see themselves as a different person or just a simple portrait project of people's everyday lives, day in the life of It can be a reference point for a lot of great things. I'll tell you what it's a good reference point for, some good photography. So I'm not sure who's a man, who's a woman. It doesn't really matter. I don't really judge people off that. I love strong imagery I love great stories I love the way that there's text in here I love that each one shows a visual sort of, has a visual poignancy has a visual relevance to each person's lives and character story. I'm not going to show you all of it, I'm going to show you Angie Rudo Castillo and I guess this book was made to sort of enlighten people on maybe these people are just human why should they be victimised and persecuted because they see themselves as having different sexuality or they want to change their sexuality the only people who should care are them and the people around them we shouldn't make judgements should we it's crazy, life's too short let people do what they need to do as long as they're not hurting anybody and I'm going to bring this down to that the quality's quite nice I've never been a massive fan of this format and it just never sits right with me this sort of full page with white I think if you're going to do that maybe have some more information, I don't know I quite like double pages on that but some people don't like double pages anyway, I'm following the life of Angie and she approaches the Institute for Social Services I'm not sure which part of Mexico I forgot and I haven't refreshed myself, this is her journey, this is her integration this is her it's her integration but this is her life as it is look at the pictures aren't they gorgeous I wonder if it was shot on digital I wonder if it was shot it feels like it could be digital black and white but I really don't know I wouldn't know and I guess Angie was a guy and in a in a woman's mind and now is a is um it's not depictive of um if she's had a a change of operation stuff looks quite feminine and sort of and this is uh that's her brother, that's really nice so that's Angie originally and that's her brother and that's her now each to their own you know, it's lovely look at that, that's her oh I've kissed the photograph of her son she's not seen him since 2011 wow, that's not sad having kissed myself I couldn't cope with that and I like the way it's gone from colour now I like that, wow colour so I'm guessing that I'm guessing that it is shot on colour and it's being transferred I wonder why, it's interesting, I like the shapes it makes I think it's very feminine with the colours, it actually it associates itself, the colours help direct you and help you sort of validate that sort of feminine side of her whereas the black and white, it's all patterns and shapes and it bears no sort of there's no definite sort of symbols apart from obviously the long hair but there's like there's no color at all shapes and tones and stuff like that whereas with the this i guess it's giving you that real definition of that feminine side okay and this is Angie walking on Madero Street in downtown Mexico City and she was founding member of the Frente Claudino Pro Derechos de Transexuales Transgenders or Frente Trans. It's a waste of time, me, trying to translate anything. Okay, black and white again, we've jumped. It's interesting quality it gives with the colour. It's a nice way of reflecting on it, isn't it? It's a nice way of sort of seeing what the colour does to the black and white. It's interesting. It's sort of neutral, isn't it? and then that really is defining the color genesis rafael lopez Ramirez I always had the behavior of a boy that is the reason i was physically and verbally reprimanded by my mother and some of my so i guess this guy who has had a hard time Genesis a 39 year old originally from a socially conservative city in the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico Genesis realized that he wanted to live as a man from a very early age that's fine now i think there's some shots here it's coming i remember this that's color i wonder what the color is symbolizing is it in that reality check from this their world and it's sort of it's just it's something which they blend into and then that's that sort of you know the color of of the reality of life you know i don't know maybe but there's something here i love that it's great really good shooting you know it's good observed nicely observed in the gym or inside in the gym but there's a shot i want to show you that look at that wow look at the hair wow that you know how can you how can people how can people object to people when they go this far let people do what they want they're not hurting anybody it's like how can people how can people judge and say you shouldn't do this blah blah blah when it's their life you know and you have to respect that that's a oh what a shot that's just fantastic look at that amazing am i getting this i need to lift this up a little bit yeah fantastic so So, that's Oyuki Martinez, so that's, is this a lady, is it a guy? I recall being a victim of violence, I don't remember if I ran into her, I'm not fully established, no. Yes, I think she is female originally, okay. So, what I'm going to do, I'm going to jump to, oh, look at that, isn't that beautiful? It's some lovely shots, and I'm 94 pages into it, and I've missed half of it, and this is such a great book to sort of celebrate these people's lives but just if anybody's thinking oh i'm going to do a documentary on on on a sort of group of people or an individual who who who are living against the sort of norms of life or they're they're they're being persecuted or they're or they're not fitting in with society i think this has given them an even ground and i I think you could learn a lot by referencing this book and learn how, you know, the coming together of it could bring together a bit of understanding and knowledge to people, you know? I might not be making much sense, but, you know, I'm sort of trying to make light of a quick insight into this book and trying to just give you some of my point of views, whether you like them or not. You know, I just appreciate the great photography and the very important storylines. Mario Sanchez Perez and Diana Laura Guerrero Sandoval. if anything through these canvas series i might my my pronunciations and different language skills might improve um mario and diana gain national attention to the international day against homophobia they became the first transgender couple to marry this deserves a spotlight i'm going to spotlight Mario and Diana because they deserve it and then i'm going to go at the end and I got a thing give you some links to go and buy this so Mario and Diana isn't that that's unconditional love really isn't it isn't that fantastic it's incredible how would you ever think that would be possible like 10 years before it happened crazy but amazing I'm not really into showing them I don't think family audience but I respect the fact that it's on great shot otherwise there's a bit of phallic symbol going on down here I don't think it's important look at that isn't that gorgeous let's have a little zoom on that that's beautiful and i wonder there's a sort of effect on this all these are almost cinematic some of these it's almost like a chromatic finish to some of these pictures and i wonder if it's because of that color digital to black and white and and have they gone through a filter or something there's something very interesting about them diana communicates by public transport transportation of home and Palta one of the last neighborhoods in the south of Mexico City it's two hours to commute in the morning it's a long way to work oh great shot wow oh okay so what was the page portrait of Mario as a young age and he was named Maria del Socorro let's see now look at that oh just isn't that great photography man it's lovely i'd love to be knocking on stuff like that and do we get Diana yeah we do right so you know let's just finish on that it's a beautiful book, do you know what I'm only 229 pages into it, look at that I love this, it's such a lovely addition to my, look at that waxing it's such a lovely addition to my collection a by accident book what an accident, what some great referencing here, some great photography I get excited looking at stuff like this because I just love you know I love stories I love the way people are able to use their camera to sort of enrich other people and help other people learn about other people and I think we need more of that and I'm not trying to be sort of self righteous or anything it's just I just think photography is a great weapon you know and used correctly it's very powerful indeed what a great book thank you Kiki such a lovely book about some interesting people go and buy this i'll put the links for um kiki's website and i'm sure you can probably search your way around that if I see anywhere else um which is selling the book i will try and put the link on thank you