Pride

I once aspired to witness the fluidity of my own change. A change that exists in my soul and body, one that is ever changing, and in many ways, is indescribable. 

I was treating this change as a vengeful act, willing to bleed, break and sacrifice all that I am and all that I know in an instant. Forcefully going against stereotypes was the only way I could exist. Now, I see that my identity is not defined by how I change, but by how I choose to exist. 

I see this in the subjects that I have photographed. Trans and Asian, each identity exists everywhere and in every way. 

An identity existing with various levels of  love, attitudes, perceptions and perspectives. Existing in the spiritual, in the personal, and in the public. 

Existing as a performer for the gaze of viewers and simultaneously returning and challenging that gaze, not as an objective identity but rather as an objective reality.  

Bare skin and all, the power of how we choose to exist has always resided within us.

This power, this choice, whatever change we aspire towards, is worth having pride in. We have not let it define us but we have lived to change what it means. 

Our identities do not exist in the context of the future nor are they defined solely by the past. 

The question is no longer about resolve for change. I found the fluidity that I once aspired to witness existing openly in the present, prevailing for the world to see. Joon-Young Lee

I once aspired to witness the fluidity of my own change. A change that exists in my soul and body, one that is ever changing, and in many ways, is indescribable. 

I was treating this change as a vengeful act, willing to bleed, break and sacrifice all that I am and all that I know in an instant. Forcefully going against stereotypes was the only way I could exist. Now, I see that my identity is not defined by how I change, but by how I choose to exist. 

I see this in the subjects that I have photographed. Trans and Asian, each identity exists everywhere and in every way. 

An identity existing with various levels of  love, attitudes, perceptions and perspectives. Existing in the spiritual, in the personal, and in the public. 

Existing as a performer for the gaze of viewers and simultaneously returning and challenging that gaze, not as an objective identity but rather as an objective reality.  

Bare skin and all, the power of how we choose to exist has always resided within us.

This power, this choice, whatever change we aspire towards, is worth having pride in. We have not let it define us but we have lived to change what it means. 

Our identities do not exist in the context of the future nor are they defined solely by the past. 

The question is no longer about resolve for change. I found the fluidity that I once aspired to witness existing openly in the present, prevailing for the world to see.