{"id":6328,"date":"2015-01-21T16:35:44","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T21:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/?p=6328"},"modified":"2015-10-15T19:01:20","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T23:01:20","slug":"exploring-trans-femininity-with-will-brower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/exploring-trans-femininity-with-will-brower\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Trans* Femininity with Will Brower"},"content":{"rendered":"
Author | Annie Malamet<\/h5>\n

“Most of all I am drawn to\u00a0difference, and want to see beautiful images of women transgressing racist and patriarchal\u00a0standards.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Will Brower<\/a> is a young photographer at NYU Tisch School of the Arts whose work has already\u00a0been featured in media outlets such as The Huffington Post and Original Plumbing. In the past she has also collaborated with\u00a0Harrison Koiwai to produce an editorial featuring Juliana Huxtable, Ben sands, Daniel Abbott, and Hari Nef (sample below).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"F\/W<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently, Will directed and filmed trans\u00a0woman rapper Quay Dash\u2019s first music video<\/a>, a cute, hard as fuck, kitschy throwback to 90s rap\u00a0videos that feature female MCs chilling with their squads in various locales. Will\u2019s style is at\u00a0once refined and low-tech, utilizing clean lighting, traditional studio portraiture tropes, and low-fi\u00a0<\/span>camera equipment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Featuring<\/a>
Featuring Quay Dash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI’m most interested in trans femininity and all kinds of feminine people,\u201d Will says. \u201cI’m learning\u00a0a lot about how I express myself as femme and what feels good to me, so I like to make pictures
\nof myself to explore those feelings further.\u201d Women\u2019s Section<\/a>, a series of self-portraits featuring\u00a0the artist in various clothing stores examining herself in the mirror or contemplating traditionally\u00a0feminine objects, explores this tension directly.<\/p>\n

\"examining\"<\/a>
From the series “Women’s Section”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dior\"<\/a>
From the series “Women’s Section”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another self-portrait project,\u00a0Research<\/a>, examines\u00a0the ways in which one can become \u201cfeminine.\u201d My favorite photo from this series depicts a\u00a0manicure being given on top of a pile of feminist psychology texts.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From the series “Research”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"From<\/a>
From the series “Research”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In her series Mom Clothes<\/a>, Will has dressed her models in typically \u201cunflattering\u201d or \u201cdowdy\u201d\u00a0clothes. The feminine people in this series are of varied races, bodies, and genders and Will has\u00a0managed to portray her subjects as high fashion models. \u201cWhen I think I look cute in a picture of\u00a0myself, it helps me feel confident, which is something I struggle with some days. Sometimes I want to look at myself and other girls under flattering light, and see the details of their faces and\u00a0how they want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/a><\/p>\n

\"MC2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ultimately, Will\u2019s current practice focuses on trans women\/femininity in all it\u2019s varied splendor.\u00a0Her decision to work with so many trans figures\/models is an inherently radical act: Will is\u00a0interested in a femininity that subverts. \u201cTrans women have very striking faces, and I think we’re\u00a0so beautiful in complex ways. I’m interested in examining misogyny, and how it simplifies and\u00a0commodifies the ways women choose to express themselves. Most of all I am drawn to\u00a0difference, and want to see beautiful images of women transgressing racist and patriarchal\u00a0standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Will<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author | Annie Malamet “Most of all I am drawn to\u00a0difference, and want to see beautiful images of women transgressing racist and patriarchal\u00a0standards.\u201d Will Brower is a young photographer at NYU Tisch School of the Arts whose work has already\u00a0been featured in media outlets such as The Huffington Post and Original Plumbing. In the past\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[45,97,51,44,52,1769,38,320,62,1770,352,1771,1768],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-6328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-art","tag-artist","tag-fashion-2","tag-nyc","tag-photography","tag-quay-dash","tag-queer","tag-style","tag-trans","tag-transfeminine","tag-transgender","tag-visualart","tag-will-brower"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Will-Brower1.jpg?fit=1600%2C1155","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6QBV8-1E4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6328"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6376,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6328\/revisions\/6376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6328"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}