i felt it swallow me whole, too.

American Boys

In the American Boys project, photographer Soraya Zaman traveled to 21 states to photograph and interview trans men.

From top:

Jimi (@sir.santiago), age 27, Richmond, Virginia. Jimi says: “Being African American and being Dominican as well, knowing that struggle coming into my own struggle within me, instead of being scared, I decided to stand up and fight for what rights I have as a human being. My parents and grandma always taught me to treat people equally and I stand up for the LGBTQ community of all colors.”

Aodhàn (@aodhancrawford), Boises, Idaho. Soraya writes: “Aodhàn identifies as a trans-man and also as “Two Spirit” within the Native American culture and comes from the Cherokee.  He taught me that before colonization there was no labels for gender non-conforming indigenous people . The term “Two Spirit” is an umbrella term for all the different words (120+ documented words), each tribe came up with when colonists asked, “What are they?”. Aodhàn believed that within Cherokee tribe, “Two Spirit” means “It’s not about me” and his role is to help the people. Often a two spirit person would take a vital role within the community because they were allowed to blend both the masculine and feminine roles in life, ceremony and art, that are usually seperate.  He put it so beautifully…. ‘Women are the moon and men are the sun, so the moon is feminine and the sun is masculine. The two spirit people are the sunrise and the sunset that brings these two together”. I love that.’“

Kaleb Murray (@heykaleb), Los Angeles, California. Soraya writes: “Kaleb came to my Apt in Brooklyn and we ran around the streets together chatting and taking pics. I didn’t realize at the time, but this candid, loose style of photography set in motion my process for American Boys.”

Sam Jungwoo (@samjwc), Seattle, Washington. Soraya writes: “Sam has smiles for days.  When we were taking his photographs I kept asking him so give me a serious look… 3 seconds later he just burst out smiling again!  So we rolled with it the whole day ‘cause why stop smiling! 😁😁😁”

Jei (@thetransviking). Soraya writes: “He’s truly a Viking! Just look at that firey red hair and beard. We shot on the mountains of Colorado Springs, where he was so at home amongst nature. Jei has come up against a lot of hardships, especially in his teen years.  As a victim of violence, Jei spoke to me about hatred towards the trans community.  This notion that trans people are in someway deceiving or tricking others and their perceptions. How often this can result in discrimination and violence.  The time is now to collectively change this narrative of trans-ness.  To let people know who express hatred that being trans and trans bodies, might not totally align with their expectations and that this is not threatening, it is not scary and it doesn’t invade their privacy, or their sense of self.“

The project has its own account on Instagram, with loads of great photos.

The project resulted in a book with photos and interviews. For the leaunch of the book, The Guardian published a great article.