Many documentary photographic projects that deal with trans issues exploit the genders of their subjects, pointing to an "otherness" or inappropriately exoticizing their bodies. A Series of Questions seeks instead to make visible the transphobia and gender-baiting that can become part of everyday interactions and lives, forming a fuller picture of the various lived experiences. In so doing, this work contrasts with the dehumanizing approaches that predominate the images made of transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, and gender-variant people, which often focus solely on their gender or trans status, or use them to further a specific point about social construction and gender....
As a greater number of subjects and questions are accumulated, a relentless conversation of questioning emerges. Attention is directed not on the backgrounds of the transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, or gender-variant subjects, but on the dynamics at work in these conversations. I am interested in uncovering the typology of these questions, discovering what categories of questions emerge as the script of power dynamics and interrogation is flipped." - L. Weingarten, photographer
What I love about these portraits is that it digs deeper than just the image of the subject. These capture their hardships and the pointed questions they have encountered giving the pieces a narrative quality that includes an unseen person. When I look at these images I create that person saying the quotes on the signs and I start to empathize with the subject. The questions are invasive. These are pointed queries to inflict hurt and to stamp someone with abnormality. When will people learn to just accept one another and to let each other just be?
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