Soraya Zaman's American Boys isn't just a collection of portraits meant to simply be perused, though one certainly may, and many probably will. It's an intimate look into the lives and stories of transmasculine Americans, whose very identities are often put up for debate by those far outside their daily lives. And while the title of the book may seem ill-fitting at first -- declarations of patriotism, in this climate? -- that's quite literally the point. American Boys rejects the notion of traditional boyhood as defined by the masculinity of cis men, and offers up a timely, impactful declaration of its own:
Our American boys are trans, and they will not be erased.
Back before Trump began his crusade to erase trans people from schools, bathrooms and the military, Zaman had been traveling the country to meet young folks paving new ways to exist in this world."I just wanted to take images that meant something and were personal to me," says the Australian, queer, nonbinary photographer, "but that quickly changed with each new person I met and photographed."
Across 21 states, Zaman met transmasc folks from ages 18-35 at different points in their transitions, photographed them, and asked them to pen essays to accompany their portraits. "It became apparent that honoring and sharing stories, validating and centering everyone in a positive and uplifting way, was necessary and important," Zaman told Out, "especially in the now changing political climate."
Zaman found their subjects through social media, mostly through Instagram, and their stories are accompanied by a timeline that contextualizes the work alongside landmark moments in LGBTQ+ history.
"When you spend time with someone, one on one, and ask them to tell you their story, they all are impactful," Zaman said. "The words and stories I share in the book touch on a number of things including coming into trans identity, discovering sexuality, navigating family, race, religion, love, behavior, location, politics etc. The people in the book are pioneers of the new movements in gender identity across the country. They live their true authentic selves against the grain of our heteronormative society. All of these stories, big or small are impactful."
Ahead of its April 2 release by nonprofit publisher Daylight Books, we talked with Soraya about their project's origins, why social media is a lifeline for many queer, young folks, and what they hope queer youth take away from their work.
Tell me about how American Boys started.
This project had a humble beginning back in the summer of 2016, before trans identity erasure became a political flashpoint with things such as the trans military ban. I just wanted to take images that meant something and were personal to me. But that quickly changed with each new person I met and photographed. It became apparent that honoring and sharing stories, validating and centering everyone in a positive and uplifting way, was necessary and important, especially in the now changing political climate. These are affirmative images of everyone featured that show a glimpse into their lives, their personality, honesty, humor, beauty, vulnerability, strength and so on. It informs and expands upon understandings of gender identity outside of the binary in a real and authentic way and challenges people's own perceptions of traditional binary gender roles.
You write that American Boys is a challenge to "concepts of gender and the nostalgic notions of American boyhood." Why is it important to shake up cishetero- and cishomocentric understandings of adolescence?
It's important because we live in a world that pervasively only recognizes two genders. Gender is a social construct. It's our society and our culture that has established a strict set of behaviors coupled with guidelines about what boyhood (and girlhood) should look like; sound like and act like, etc. These rigid binary ideologies of what is expected are dangerous, oppressive and toxic to trans and non binary people. If we can all grasp this concept, especially cis people (straight or otherwise) and put into practice an acceptance and understanding of more fluid identities and expressions within everyday life, we can help create a more inclusive and accepting world that is free from toxic displays of gender and patriarchy. We all need to recalibrate our brains so a statement such as American Boys takes on a more complex and nuanced internalized understanding.
Tell me about the timeline of queer history published after your subjects' essays. What was the intent behind tying history into the book?
The brief timeline has been included to contextualize the movements in gender and queer politics over the last few years. Queer and trans identity is not something new and the LGBTQIA+ community have been fighting for equality, visibility and acceptance for a long time. So it's important to draw attention to some of the achievements and significant milestones, setbacks and events that have shaped our community. Beyond just this timeline, it is also important to acknowledge that the indigenous people of this land have always recognized more than two genders, which goes back way beyond any of this.
You write in American Boys about how social media affects our senses of self. How did you see this manifest in your work?
I discovered everyone in this project through Instagram. I mostly sort out people who were using their online platform to express what was happening in their lives in an interesting way. To me they were natural storytellers, with a willingness to share for good or bad. That resonated with me. I think for a lot of people, transmasculine people in particular, social media is a tool used to find community beyond your physical surroundings. It's a place to be visible, share stories, learn from other people's experiences and to realize you are not alone. So many of the people featured in this work know and communicate with each other over social media but have never met in person.
So much of the conversation around YouTube focuses on creator monetization and controversy, and its ability to create community is often overlooked in a larger media narrative. What have you seen the platform do for young folks?
I think Youtube has been an important platform used to share information and visual updates of transition amongst the transmasculine community. It can be less polished and more informative than Instagram. There were many people featured in this book who said that their "aha!" moment in realizing they are transgender was from discovering and falling into a rabbit hole of YouTube videos made by other trans folks.
Tyler, who is featured in this book, used YouTube a few years ago to talk about the scar on his arm, left from the skin graft taken for his phalloplasty. The video, "I hate my arm.." where Tyler talks openly about his conflicted feelings around his scar at the time, went viral with now over 4.6 million views and thousands of comments from people mostly uplifting him, but also talking about their own scars and similar feelings. To me, this shows that the simple and brave act of being vulnerable can have a profound and positive impact upon other people, and platforms like YouTube provide a space for this to happen.
You include an important note about your choice to feature each subject's time spent on testosterone. Why did you choose to include time spent on T?
It's used in the book as a marker of time. Each person featured has been captured at a specific moment in their transition. This project was also photographed over a three year period and many of the people have changed since we met. I intentionally added this note to make that clear. It's to not be mistaken as an indication of validity or a prerequisite for identifying as transgender. I also acknowledged that not everyone has access, can afford or perhaps even wants hormones and/or surgeries that are associated with transition. These individuals are lucky enough to be visible for those who can't.
How did you find a home for your work at the nonprofit publisher, Daylight?
Someone I know sent me their website and suggested I reach out to them because they have a history of publishing books on transgender identity. I sent them the work and they wrote back straight away. Honestly, I feel very lucky to have found them because I spent months sending this work around to a lot of different publishing houses and had received some really tone deaf responses and rejections. One of my earliest responses was an instant reply saying "Modern portraiture doesn't sell." I just thought, "Ok, but do you even get what the point of this work is about?" Another person cut and paste my personal bio back to me and told me I had made grammatical errors and highlighted in red my 'them/them' pronouns and suggested I correct them to 'she/her.' So you know, that was kind of the stuff I was coming up against.
Is there anything you would like to say to young LGBTQIA+ readers seeing your work?
I hope that you take the time to not only look at the images but also read the essays too. There are 29 people captured in this work and I will be the first to put up my hand and say that this cannot adequately represent an entire community. But I do hope, that if you look at this work and can't 'see' yourself in any of the images, then perhaps you can find shared experience in some of the stories. I know that there are so many, that I myself relate to. You are not alone in your journey. We are all in this together forging the best possible lives for ourselves all across the country and globe. And there is power in that.
Soraya Zaman is an Australian non-binary, queer photographer based in New York. Their work primarily explores notions of sexuality and gender. American Boys is available for purchase from Daylight Books. All images are copyright Soraya Zaman from the book American Boys published by Daylight Books, April 2019.
Soraya Zaman is an Australian non-binary, queer photographer based in New York. Their work primarily explores notions of sexuality and gender. American Boys is available for purchase from Daylight Books. All images are copyright Soraya Zaman from the book American Boys published by Daylight Books, April 2019.
Soraya Zaman is an Australian non-binary, queer photographer based in New York. Their work primarily explores notions of sexuality and gender. American Boys is available for purchase from Daylight Books. All images are copyright Soraya Zaman from the book American Boys published by Daylight Books, April 2019.
Soraya Zaman is an Australian non-binary, queer photographer based in New York. Their work primarily explores notions of sexuality and gender. American Boys is available for purchase from Daylight Books. All images are copyright Soraya Zaman from the book American Boys published by Daylight Books, April 2019.
