Photographer Harikrishnan found his subjects during one of his trips to Chennai. He happened to come across an area occupied by transgenders, most of whom were sex workers. Curious about their way of life, he spent time with them and talked to them. He felt their issues, worries and concerns were still never fully understood by the mainstream. After Harikrishnan came back to Kerala, he decided to work with people from the transgender community as he felt there should be space for their side of the story, too.
His exhibition of photographs titled Trans , showing three people from the community, is a powerful take on the complicated issue of the transgender identity. Through the eight photographs on display, he eggs his viewers on to talk about it and understand the third gender. “I am looking at the viewers through my subjects’ eyes,” says Harikrishnan, who has been taking photographs for the last 16 years.
A student of Applied Art from the Raja Ravi Varma College of Fine Arts, Mavelikkara, Harikrishnan’s photographs are an artistic interpretation of his subjects.
However, he has conducted just one solo exhibition last year. Titled Emotional Hardcore , the photographs were of a dark-skinned girl. “The bias against dark skin is still a reality and it lurks everywhere,” he says.
For the current show, the first challenge was to find models for the shoot. He spoke to Sonu and Deepthi, who have had sex change operations. Sonu, who works in Bangalore, was the former captain of the women’s cricket team. Today, she is a man. Deepthi became herself after she got a silicone breast implant. “They had to trust my work. They wanted to gauge my intention and once they saw what my work was, they were only too happy to co-operate,” Harikrishnan says. Another of the models is Sheetal, who has not had a surgery, but is a woman inside.
The idea of photographing them nude occurred to Harikrishnan, but he felt he could tell the story better without the starkness. The photographs, all 6ft x 4ft, show them in a celebratory mood. There’s one of Sonu and Deepthi sitting together, holding hands—their unclothed torsos laying their stories bare. Deepthi’s hair covers one of her breasts, while she covers the other with her hand. Sonu’s chest bears the scars of his reassignment surgery. Deepthi wears brightly-coloured plastic flowers in her hair and the photograph has a plastic background, allusions to their newly “created” selves.
All the frames are colourful as celebration is the mood Harikrishnan wants to emphasise on. Sheetal dressed in white, holding a blue bird cage with paper birds dangling from thin strings symbolically represent freedom from their perceived identities. One has Sonu, bare bodied, with a mirror positioned at his hip. “Everyone has both a man and a woman inside them,” Harikrishnan says.
Though sex change surgeries have become popular today, there are still people who get them done in crude ways. The photographer refers to it with a pair of scissors used to cut fish in Sonu’s hand in one of the photographs. “I have been studying people forever and after a point, when I click pictures, I feel I can almost predict their actions. These observations creep into my photography process,” Harikrishnan says.
He says his engagement with the transgender community does not end with the exhibition and plans to continue to work with them. His next show, however, will be on eyes—featuring people with squint. “It would be interesting to analyse their line of vision. I have started work on it,” he says.
Harikrishnan who hails from Thiruvalla, works as staff photographer for a popular Malayalam magazine.
The show is on till May 27 at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery.
