"I wanted these photos to convey the sense of liberation I've found in coming to recognise myself as non-binary. I spent the first 15 years of my life trapped in one gender role, and the next 8 desperately trying to pass and be accepted into the other. I'm grateful for the experiences I've had, but I now feel it's a false dichotomy...
(cont.) I'm done trying to understand myself and my body in accordance with the rules of an oppressive, patriarchal society. People will always interpret me through the lens of their own ideology. If their conception of gender is conservative, traditionalist and binary, then they face a choice between performing all sorts of mental gymnastics to try and fit me into a box, or rising to the occasion and opening themselves up to alternative ways of being." - Zeke
"As a queer person, I find great joy in exploring fluidity, and this is a philosophy that I apply to my identity and self-expression with a magical curiosity. I have found such inspiration from witnessing nature, be it the wild waves or the patterns found in leaves or stones, or a cloud drifting through the sky. Transience, movement and fluidity are an intrinsic part of nature, of life itself, and so it seems natural to apply this to ourselves and to move through the world in a way that breaks beyond limiting binaries and seeks freedom of expression...
(Cont.) I often find it so frustrating the ways that our society limits us with its ideas and assumptions of gender, of personhood. Sometimes I opt to present myself in less feminine ways to feel safer and to avoid an unkind gaze, or judgement, or worse. But recently I find more liberation in turning my frustration into passion, and bravely being a symbol of change, of transformation, of transcendent transness, of humanness. A queer free from fear, moving through the world with the hope that we can expand our perceptions, so we may find freedom of movement through our days, as we flow like the waves or sway like the trees in the breeze, unashamed and unlimited, powerful in our presence." - Milo
"For a long time I was fixated on my gender and how I was perceived, for years it felt like I had to prove who I was to the people around me, my family, the medical system, it was exhausting. Especially for a teenager, you’re still only a child. The whole experience caused turmoil I wouldn’t wish upon any person let alone someone so young. Nowadays I’m lucky to say I feel so free, I don’t feel so consumed by my gender, if anyone asked I would say I’m a boy but even that label doesn’t really mean anything, I’m comfortable in my own skin as Noah...
(Cont.) While hormones have been life saver for me, there’ve been times when I haven’t been able to access them due to turbulent circumstances but even then I know who I am, I don’t need to convince the world, I don’t care anymore, my body is simply my a container for my brain, and at the end of the day when I meet people I want them to like my brain, not my body. I am a whole lot more than my ‘trans’ label, I am human, we all have that in common, we all think and feel and go through our own difficulties, we are all more than our appearances or appellations." - Noah
My teenage psyche was palpably out of sync with my body, and as it changed rapidly, I found myself at war with my physical form and the ways that I thought it made others perceive me. Fragile, sexual, feminine- all these things that people saw in me were out of my hands and it made me feel perilously out of control of my identity. I was obsessed with what being female meant, what being male meant, and my complete lack of being able to sit comfortably under either. This is the body-mind dissonance that I wanted to convey in the first image- back then I wanted to be flat, volume-less, made up of straight lines and absent of curves. I wanted to be as visually neutral as possible, and thought that I would only feel comfortable when I achieved that. But I could never achieve it, and so I was in a constant state of discomfort.
Adulthood upheaved my ideas of identity, the relationship between psyche and physicality. I’ve found comfort in the idea that I will never be able to control people’s initial perceptions of me or societally charged assumptions about what my body type means, but I can slowly form and change these perceptions by allowing people to know me. These days I rarely think about my identity in terms of the societal gender binary nor the modernized spectrum. I’ve found any objective peace with my physical form, and this is what I wanted to represent in the second image- nothing but a sculptural, fleshy vessel for my brain." - Lou
"Climbing has been life-changing for me. It's made me appreciate my body like nothing else has. I've unlocked something, I think. There's power in pushing your body to move like that, learning how to stretch and leap, and fall. Learning to trust the placement of your feet, the strength in your hands. The knowledge that you can push that hard...
(Cont.) And that's shown up on my shoulders, my arms, my back. I can see my strength, two years' worth, in a frame full of gender euphoria. Climbing makes me feel good in my body. I like the way I look, and I like the way I can move, and I love the power that brings me." - Jamie
"Feeling pride in how you identify and how you present is easier said than achieved. Identity and changing your own perception of who you see yourself as can constantly contradict what others expect from you and how they see you. Allowing yourself not to be framed by those characteristics and understanding that there isn't a definite way to present your identity, lets others see the truth of your story and in turn, you begin to feel like you belong in your own skin...
(Cont.) The journey to this point is often impossible to navigate but exploring your own emotions and physical perception as how you want to be with the no preconceived judgment takes away the pressure of the gender stereotypes put upon society or the ones you put upon yourself and allows for that pride in your identity to return." - Jason
Matt Davies - Potter
Matt Davies - Potter
Matt Davies - Potter
Matt Davies - Potter
Matt Davies - Potter
Matt Davies - Potter
Matt Davies - Potter
Elli Carr - Ceramicist
Elli Carr - Ceramicist
Elli Carr - Ceramicist
Elli Carr - Ceramicist
Elli Carr - Ceramicist
Elli Carr - Ceramicist
Emzie Sharp - Glassblower
Emzie Sharp - Glassblower
Emzie Sharp - Glassblower
Emzie Sharp - Glassblower
Emzie Sharp - Glassblower
Dom Parish - Carpenter
Dom Parish - Carpenter
Dom Parish - Carpenter
Dom Parish - Carpenter
Dom Parish - Carpenter
Dom Parish - Carpenter
Black Oil Beetle
Scarlett Tiger Moth Caterpillar
Scarlett Tiger Moth Caterpillar
Scarlett Tiger Moth Caterpillar
Scarlett Tiger Moth Caterpillar
Maybug
Maybug
Maybug
Capaea Hotensis Snail
Capaea Hotensis Snail
Elephant Hawk Moth
