A series of three workshops exploring the reproduction of transgender bodies through photography. Open to transgender participants from the East Midlands. 

Workshops are to be held on Saturdays 6th and 27th March and 3rd April, 5-7pm. 

Trans bodies are trans-formed into sites of visual narrative through social and mainstream media. While this can create a space for the positive reflection and construction of trans experience, it can also (re)produce oppressive norms regarding how trans people should look, feel and act. These workshops begin from the understanding that trans bodies are their own sites of production, and that they may be rebellious, celebratory, elusive, chaotic or something else entirely.

Led by the artist Raju Rage and co-facilitator Isaac Scott Briggs, with the support of Nat Thorne (both of Notts Trans Hub), the workshops will generate discussion about the visual narratives of our bodies with questions about representation, and facilitate the use of analogue photography so participants can generate their own trans visual narratives on bodies, being seen/not-seen, and lived experience. The politics of this process will be interrogated at each step.

Photographs produced through the workshops will, with the photographers' permission, be exhibited at Loughborough University's Martin Hall Exhibition Space during the final week of May.

All materials will be provided, including disposable cameras, developing costs and postage costs.

Spaces are limited and participants are asked to commit to all three sessions. Workshop leaders will be collecting postal and email addresses alongside booking so we can send disposable cameras out prior to the first workshop, but these details will not be retained after the project. 

TPOC and disabled trans people are encouraged to attend. 

If you have any queries about the workshops, please email Raju Rage (info@rajurage.com) and David Bell (d.m.bell@lboro.ac.uk).

Eligibility and Accessibility

The workshops are open to all who identify as transgender, or with transgender identities, including nonbinary folks who identify as or with these terms. If you have any questions please make contact on the emails above.

The workshops will be run online through Zoom and will do all we can to meet specific access needs. You will be asked if you have any requirements at the time of booking, but can also make contact on the email address above.

We recognise hosting online reduces access for some, but due to the pandemic we are unable to host these sessions in person or physical space. We hope that in future we will be able to run in-person workshops and that parts of this project, such as the exhibition, can be engaged with physically in person.

Booking

Booking is free but essential, and can be done here. If for any reason you are unable to make the workshops after booking we ask that you cancel your booking so your place can be made available for someone else. 

These workshops form part of Radar's Bodies of Knowledge project, which has been funded by Arts Council England. Radar is also grateful for the support of Notts Trans Hub.