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5th out of 34 books
—
26 voters
Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits
The idea of gender is no long as fixed as it once was: Tootsie, La Cage aux Folles, and Milton Berle saw to that. But none of this has prepared us for Loren Cameron's amazing portraits of transsexuals. Beautifully reproduced and complemented with notes and short essays, these portraits of women who are now men may startle, but they will also make you marvel at the genuine...more
Paperback, 100 pages
Published
October 16th 1996
by Cleis Press
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The language Loren Cameron was using when this came out feels very, very dated right now, to the point that you'd probably call somebody out and have a confrontation if they used it in 2009. But, I mean, instead of just being kind of a faded photograph or whatever, that actually throws into relief what an intense time the nineties were to be a trans man: how few your role models were, how uncharted the life in front of you looked, how free and constrained you were, socially, at the same time.
Pl...more
Pl...more
The strengths of this 1996 book are its photos of female-to-male transsexuals. The head shots and nude full-body self-portraits (artistic rather than prurient) of author/photographer Loren Cameron segue into a section of head shots and bios of other trans males, covering a range of ages. One short section has photos showing the aftermath of top surgery and bottom surgery (metoidioplasty and phalloplasty). For me, the most interesting section showcases photos taken before and after transitioning-...more
I don't see the hype. Seeing that it's out of print now, I pined and waited to get this at the local library.
I was sorely disappointed, it was little more than drivel with pictures, honestly.
For it to be so highly esteemed, I thought there'd be some substance, but really there wasn't.
Get it from a library before actually paying money for it.
I was sorely disappointed, it was little more than drivel with pictures, honestly.
For it to be so highly esteemed, I thought there'd be some substance, but really there wasn't.
Get it from a library before actually paying money for it.
an interesting collection of portraits. it's definitely dated a bit, but pretty groundbreaking for when it was released. i wish some of the commentary was a little less sexist, but again, peoples ideas have changed a lot since the book was released.
This book is groundbreaking for its depection of trans mens bodies long before anyone else had a book like this out there. Unfortunatly it is not the best. The photography is fairly straight forward, its organization is not very interesting, only its subject hold any interest. The genital shots are useful in an instructive manner, but fall flat as a creative work, and borrow far to much from a medicalized model that are the only previous documentation of trans mens bodies. Loren is a better spea...more
This is THE book on FTM (female to male) tranformation in photographs. I have met Loren Cameron and he is amazing. The dichotomy between maleness and femaleness in seeing FTM's that chose not to fully have surgery (like Cameron) is very interesting.
I have to say that I enjoyed the photographs more than the actual text that accompanied it. The photographs were beautiful, though.
this is an awesome book! i originally bought it for my ftm exboyfriend but kept it in the divorce. loren camerons transformation is incredible. the before and after photos are freaking amazing! everyone should take a look at this book. it takes only a few minutes- and you will be amazed!
I just re-read this (the first time was 6 years ago), and it's an amazing historical document and photographic essay of an ever growing community. Much different for me the second time around...
Jul 17, 2007
Incredulous Harrumpherous
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone.
Shelves:
riotlikeyoumeanit
Loren Cameron is extremely self-involved, misogynistic and arrogant but, I enjoy the idea of his art/mission.
Sep 20, 2008
Jay
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Transgender people, FTMs, admirers of the human body
Shelves:
gender-and-sexuality,
visual
Stunning photos.
Diverse and deep stories.
Diverse and deep stories.
Not a lot of reading, more pictures.
May 26, 2013
Rian
marked it as to-read
May 16, 2013
Annalisa
marked it as to-read
Apr 21, 2013
Damien
marked it as to-read
Apr 15, 2013
Maximus Sontag
marked it as to-read
Apr 10, 2013
Will Van
marked it as to-read
Apr 04, 2013
Mightymaeve
marked it as to-read
Apr 01, 2013
Codyshinall
marked it as to-read
Mar 31, 2013
Cheri
added it
Feb 20, 2013
Gay City LGBT Library
added it
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