© Katya Bogachevskaya
Travesty: The Phantom World of the Transvestite
It’s impossible to call them “men” because they do not feel at home in their own bodies – they try as hard as possible to resemble women -copying their gait, behavior and dress. At the same time it’s impossible to call them “women” – angular features and overemphasized feminine mannerisms become at once tragic and comical farce. Illusion. In fact – they are not men, they are not women; they live somewhere between these two worlds – in their phantom and imaginary world.
But they think that this reality is the only one possible for them and they consider themselves to be comfortable and free. They don’t see themselves from the point of view of others, comic figures – insane and dangerous. For the majority of my transvestite friends this strangeness remained something about which it’s better to keep silent (even in their childhood they began to wear their mother’s clothes and shoes, secretly trying on lipstick, Indian ink).
But among them there are people who were able to grow from underground drag-amateurs to Drag Queens. But even in this instance, the main area performance arenas are semi-enclosed nightclubs. It’s a very rare occurrence for someone to come out of this sphere.
In spite of the fact that the time when even in psychiatry transvestitism was called “perversion that has to be healed” has passed and modern science treats divergence from the “traditional” or “conventional” patterns of behaviour more tolerantly; attitudes toward transvestites in Russian society are still extremely hostile.
Enjoy the exhibition Travesty: The Phantom World of the Transvestite by Katya Bogachevskaya!
Tags: bogachevskaya, exhibition
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Nice, Katya! Congratulations. But I heard that in Moscow no gays even – how says our mayor Luzhkov;) always has been confident that St. Petersburg – a cultural city )) and more western ))
In love, Oleg -
A great series indeed! I am enjoying watching it. Very good work Katya!
The exhibitions are really a highlight, everytime. Thanks Stefan!
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wonderful work, great series! I would say that almost all images work perfectly and are very beautiful. Really enjoied!
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Gran trabajo fotografico Katya. Stefan, una vez lo tengo que escribir, las “exhibition” mensuales siempre son un placer. un abrazo.
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It’s ashame that they have to hide and peoples hostile actions make it uncomfortable. Judge no one, I say, no one and live and let live. They are still human beings just like you and I.
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Thank you all for your comments!
This story is very important for me. All that I try to do in photography that’s bcs I would like to be a human first of all. When nobody in Russia wanted to publish this story saying me about political correction and other things – I understood more and more that I would like to show it, story about human beings. Yes, they are as they are – and it’s an interesting “topic” – trasvestite – but as I hope that it would be not only “interesting” and “nice”- smth more. I could say and you could see – that they are persons. They have their story and their lives. And they are strange but normal. They live in their phantom world and that’s their tragedy for and about them. But nobody wants to understand it! Nobody wants to see that they exist and live -as normal people – and that they have their tragedy of living in that f world!
I do it and I photograph it bcs it’s my way to change the attitude in society towards smth that is very important for me – towards the life.
I Hope. That I could do it. Somehow.
PS Sorry about my english – the most important thing is that you’ll understand what I mean. -
Katya, I hope you will continue to work on this story! What is ‘normal’ anyway? If we could stop to fear the unknown, the diverse from us, we’d be so much richer! Photography is one way to show us more of the others, to lift the veil of the unknown, and therefore important! Keep on at it!
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“This comment cannot be edited because it is marked as spam”
:))i just wrote “very good”
so, that´s all i wanted to say, no spam..
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Carina, this is the anti-flickr-spam filter. your comment was just too short ;)
Seriously, I dont know why …
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Very nice and beautiful, and special!
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great piece of work, touching, full of information and a visual joy to look at, thanks
13 comments