Loren Cameron

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Loren Rex Cameron
Born (1959-08-28) August 28, 1959 (age 62)
Pasadena, California, U.S.
OccupationPhotographer, author, visual artist

Loren Rex Cameron (born August 28, 1959) is an American photographer, author and transgender activist. His work includes portraits and self-portraits consisting of transsexual bodies in both clothed and nude form.[1]

Biography[]

Loren Rex Cameron was born in Pasadena, California on August 28, 1959. In 1969, after his mother's death, he moved to rural Arkansas to live on his father's farm.[citation needed] By the age of 16, Cameron identified as a lesbian and encountered homophobia in the small town where he lived.[2] At this time, Cameron quit school and left home to seek work as a construction worker and other blue collar employment.[citation needed] In 1979, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he identified socially with the lesbian community until the age of 26, when he confronted his dissatisfaction with his body and was excluded from the lesbian community.[3][4] Cameron's interest in photography coincided with the beginning of his transition from female to male, which he documented photographically. In 1993 Cameron began studying the basics of photography and started photographing the transsexual community.[2] Since 1994, he has given lectures on his work at universities, educational conferences and art institutes. By 1995, Cameron's photographs had been shown in solo exhibitions in San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles.[2]

Photography[]

Cameron's photography and writing was first published by Cleis Press in 1996. His first published works (Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits and Man Tool: The Nuts and Bolts of Female-to-Male Surgery) consist largely of self-portraits, and portraits of other female to male transsexuals.[1] Body Alchemy documented Cameron's personal experience of transition from female to male, his life as a man, and the everyday lives of trans men he knew.[2] The nude figures' poses in the artist's photography often portray moments of action and performance.[5] In many of his self portraits, he includes the shutter-release bulb that he used to take the photograph. The choice to work alone and feature the bulb serves as a commentary on the self-made aspect of being transsexual.[6] His photography shows how the issues of queer bioethics come up not only in clinical sites but also in public art and museum spaces. His work was intended to remove the clinical view of transsexual bodies and redefine them as not in need of a cure.[5] Body Alchemy became a double 1996 Lambda Literary Award winner.[7] It remains his most well-known work to date, though he has since published other photographic works. More recently published work includes representation of both female and male transsexuals, portraits and classical nudes (Body Photographs by Loren Cameron Volume 1 and 2.[1]

Cameron's work was first shown as part of a 1994 exhibit in San Francisco.[5] His images have also been exhibited in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, in Santiago, Chile, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and in Mexico City.[citation needed] They have been published in numerous books such as Constructing Masculinity: Discussions in Contemporary Culture and Leslie Feinberg's Transgender Warriors.[citation needed] He has also posed for photographers such as Daniel Nicoletta, Amy Arbus, and Howard Shatz.[citation needed] Cameron has lectured at universities across the United States, including Smith College, Harvard, Cornell, Brown, the University of California at Berkeley, Penn State, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.[citation needed] In May 2008, Cameron presented his work at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. He was profiled on the Discovery Health Channel's LGBT-themed special , and on the National Geographic Channel's Taboo "Sexual Identity" series.[8] He was also interviewed in The New Yorker magazine.[4]

Reception[]

Cameron's work is controversial among critics. Many praise his photographs as compelling and informative,[3][9] while others criticize it for being sexually explicit.[10]

In 2012, The University of Minnesota-Duluth invited Loren Cameron to campus to present his photography.[10][11][12] The University paid Cameron $4,000 from student services [12] to cover his speaker’s fee and travel expenses.[10][11] This decision was met with a backlash, due to him and his subjects' identity as transsexual individuals, as well as the nudity in Cameron’s work.[10][11] Despite the objections, Cameron delivered his presentation on September 26, 2012.[12]

Body Alchemy is considered by some to be influential for bringing attention to the social and medical issues that transsexual people face.

Books[]

  • Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits. 1996, Cleis Press. ISBN 978-1-57344-062-2.
  • Cuerpos fotografiados por Cameron: fotografías. Volume 1. 2009, Taller Experimental Cuerpos Pintados. ISBN 978-9-56295-058-9.
  • Cuerpos fotografiados por Cameron: fotografías. Volume 2. 2009, Taller Experimental Cuerpos Pintados. ISBN 978-9-56295-063-3.

Awards and recognition[]

  • Lambda Literary Award, Inaugural Transgender Category, 1997[7]
  • Lambda Literary Award, Small Press Category, 1997[7]
  • Lambda Literary Award Nominee, Best Photography Category, 1997[7]
  • 1997 FTM International Pride Award[1]

References[]

  • All biographical information is taken from Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits and the biography section of Online Alchemy as of November 11, 2008.
  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Cameron, Loren (1961–2008). "Loren Cameron papers, 1961-2008, bulk 1993-2003". Digital Transgender Archive. Archived from the original on April 2002.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits. Cleis Press. 1996. ISBN 9781573440622.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Corinne, Tee (March 1997). "Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits". Lambda Book Report. 5 – via Gale.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Bloom, Amy (1994-07-11). "The Body Lies". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c Hannabach, Cathy (2015-12-07). "Bodies on Display: Queer Biopolitics in Popular Culture". Journal of Homosexuality. 63 (3): 349–368. doi:10.1080/00918369.2016.1124691. PMID 26642823. S2CID 205471003.
  6. ^ Hannabach, Cathy (2016-03-03). "Bodies on Display: Queer Biopolitics in Popular Culture". Journal of Homosexuality. 63 (3): 349–368. doi:10.1080/00918369.2016.1124691. ISSN 0091-8369. PMID 26642823. S2CID 205471003.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Cerna, Antonio Gonzalez (1997-07-15). "9th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  8. ^ "Gender Change". National Geographic - Videos, TV Shows & Photos - Asia. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  9. ^ Publishing, Here (1996-11-12). The Advocate. Here Publishing.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Chiaramonte, Perry (2015-03-25). "Minnesota university books photo exhibit of trangender [sic] man's metamorphosis". Fox News. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b c Barry, Doug. "Minnesota University Drawing Scrutiny for Inviting Transgender Photographer Loren Cameron to Campus". Jezebel. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b c Kinley, Shannon (September 26, 2012). "Artist Undresses Transgender Stereotypes". The Statesman.

Further reading[]

  • The Transiting Self: The Nude Self-Portraits of Transman Loren Cameron and Hermaphrodyke Del La Grace Volcano - by Tee A. Corinne - College Art Association Conference paper, 2002
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