P. Abhijith’s photographs have played a role in making Kerala the first State in the country to come up with a transgender policy. However, Abijith’s exhibitions of photographs in different parts of Kerala were on transwomen, male-to-female transgender persons. For the first time, he has come up with the story of transmen, female-to-male transsexuals.
‘Man, I am’, the exhibition that began at the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Art Gallery in Kozhikode on Tuesday, goes through the lives of seven transmen in 41 vivid frames. Vihan Peethambaran, Sivanandu, Eby Kuttan, Ishaan K. Shaan, Selvam, Sonu Niranjan and Christy Raj have been featured in the exhibition.
“These photographs are poems by themselves,” is how writer Subhash Chandran described the images after opening the exhibition. “There is no better way to explain the identity crisis,” he said of a photograph of Ishaan between two male mannequins.
The photographs convey various facets of the life of transmen such as their loneliness, relationship with family and other transgender individuals, how they found their partners and the efforts they put in to complete the their male identity through haircuts, clothing and male friends.
Sivanandu, Eby Kuttan and Sonu Niranjan who attended the opening spoke about the recent changes in public attitude towards transgenders. “Transmen have always been away from the limelight, as the media were after transwomen. People do not understand that our problems are a little different from theirs,” said Sonu. He said the transgender policy had not benefited them as they were fewer in number. The exhibition concludes on February 25.
