Showing posts with label Rhys Ernst. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rhys Ernst. Show all posts

Monday, May 19, 2014

Home> Health Transgender Couple Photographs Their Opposite Transitions

via Good Morning America
PHOTO: Rhys Ernst and Zackary Drucker, from the Relationship series.
Transgender artists Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst are transitioning in opposite directions and have captured their individual transformations in the "Relationship" series, a collection of photographs on exhibit as part of Biennial 2014 at The Whitney Museum of American Art from March 7 to May 25.
The photo series is an intimate diary of the couple's love affair and their gender identity transitions -- Drucker from male to female and Ernst from female to male. The photos span five years of their relationship from 2008 to 2013. The photographs include tender embraces, their bandaged bodies from hormone injections and also shots of Drucker's growing breasts.
PHOTO: Zackary Drucker in the Relationship series (2008-2013) at the Whitney Museum.
Courtesy of the Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.
PHOTO: Zackary Drucker in the 'Relationship' series (2008-2013) at the Whitney Museum.
Drucker, 31, was born male in Syracuse, New York, and is a graduate of Hampshire College. Ernst, 31, was born female in Pomona, California, and graduated from the School of Visual Arts. She had appeared on a TV reality show "Artstar," and he had been working for MTV when the couple met in 2005. They now live in Los Angeles. The pair have recently been hired to act as advisers on Amazon's new original series, "Transparent."
PHOTO: Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst, from the Relationship series, 2008?2013.
Courtesy of Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst with Luis De Jesus.
PHOTO: Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst, from the 'Relationship' series, 2008?2013.
Going public with their photographs as their relationship progressed seemed "organic," Ernst told ABC News.
"We stepped back and we had a huge body of work. It felt like a natural choice. We didn't think about being in the closet. It's faithful to our lives and has a lot of layers, not just to do with gender."
Drucker told ABC News their project was "was an impulse to investigate and to record and to be an inspiration."
PHOTO: Rhys Ernst from the Relationship series, 2008-2013.
Courtesy of the artists and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.
PHOTO: Rhys Ernst from the Relationship series, 2008-2013.
The installation is part of three collaborative projects by Drucker, who is a photographer, filmmaker and performance artist, and Ernst, a director and filmmaker. They have also staged several events at the Whitney, including a screening of their film, "She Gone Rogue," a series of tarot card readings with the drag queen Flawless Sabrina, which sold out.
PHOTO: Zackary Drucker in the Relationship series at the Whitney Museum.
Courtesy of the Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.
PHOTO: Zackary Drucker in the 'Relationship' series at the Whitney Museum.
"We have been very fortune to have had supportive family," said Drucker. "Much of that has to do with our socioeconomic background -- also being white. Lots of trans people are in very dangerous, precarious situations because our culture does not create space for people who exist outside the binary. These insidious elements of gender policing trickle down and effect all of us."
PHOTO: Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst, from the Relationship series, 2008-2013. at the Whitney Museum.
Courtesy of the Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.
PHOTO: Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst, from the 'Relationship' series, 2008-2013. at the Whitney Museum.
But, added Ernst, "the biggest struggle for us outside being trans is more about being emerging artists and struggling and trying to figure out how to pay our bills and make a living. Practicing our art has been really hard."

DONATE