our TRANS family

our TRANS family is a photography project by Jeff Pearcy and Meredith Watts, who visited Lawrence and gave a talk on November 1st, 2017.

The introduction of this project, given by Helen Kramer, my former Gender Studies class professor, was so touching and inspiring. After the few Gender Studies Classes I have taken in college, transgender stories do not seem like novelties to me anymore, it is the transgender political issues that started to fill up my academics. I did not expect to be eye-opened by another talk since I have read a modest amount of works regarding transgender issues. However, Helen's talk again touched me, though I am not sure if that was the gloomy, rainy weather that made me emotional. Helen talked about her view on the concept of a "family", and her experience of a transition within the marriage. Transition is not the end of a marriage. A couple can be a family. Trans people are beautiful.

Jeff and Meredith later started to present their works and talk about the stories behind them. I wen tot this talk before I saw the show, so I listened without a single clue. The photos are great shots, I liked most of them. And this single one, a Korean American mother, who has lost her son, Skyler, holding his picture next to her chest, standing in front of a cemetery where probably Skyler sleeps, with the look of the deepest grief, courage and love all at once. It was heartbreaking. I was trying to hold my tears back but I failed a little. At that moment the whole auditorium was silent, only the speaker's voice was left in the space. I don't know why I felt so much emotion through just one photography, but the feeling was so strong that it burned a tiny mark on my heart. This is enough for me.