Divas of San Francisco: Portraits of Transsexual Women - Softcover

David Steinberg

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0914906054 ISBN 13: 9780914906056

Publisher: Red Alder Books, 2008

Synopsis

For the last five years, David Steinberg has been photographing transsexual women who frequent San Francisco's Divas Nightclub and Bar, the most prominent transgender club in the U.S. With this collection of intimate, revealing photographs, Steinberg honors the individuality, diversity, and fierce integrity of a group of people who are alternatively ignored and fetishized, but rarely acknowledged and appreciated for who they really are. These 59 full-page color portraits of transsexual dancers, bartenders, lip-sync performers, disc jockeys, regulars and visitors reach beneath an often glamorous surface to present a broad spectrum of remarkable women in all their complexity -- their joy, sadness, strength, uncertainty, toughness, vulnerability and, most of all, their courage in embracing the core of who they know themselves to be in the face of a misunderstanding, frightened, and often hostile world.

About this title

From the Author

I have been involved with transsexual women for over twenty years, ever since I followed two women into a San Francisco bar called The Black Rose and discovered a world I previously knew nothing about. During this time I have met a broad spectrum of trans women at a series of San Francisco clubs, dated some, gotten to know many other as friends and acquaintances. AS a result I've had to reexamine every assumption I ever made about gender, and have been led to a radically different understanding of what gender means, and of how profoundly the concept of gender shapes the lives of transgender and non-transgender people alike.
Photographing transsexual women has been its own remarkable journey, giving me an opportunity to see and get to know trans women in the peculiarly personal, intimate way that the camera makes possible. I am constantly amazed at how present, genuine, and revealing transsexual women are in front of my camera. Repeatedly, I see through the lens a person with a deep desire to be seen, to reveal her inner self and be received with respect and understanding. Perhaps this is why trans women affect me so strongly, why their struggles feel so close to home even though their lives and issues are so different from my own. Don't we all want to be seen and respected for who we really are? Haven't we all been shunned when we fail to confirm the assumptions and biases of the people around us?Just about every transsexual woman I know has a profound story to tell. Typically it is a story filled with personal conflict, loss of family and friends, and episodes of extreme physical violence, but also a tale of inner strength, courage, personal vindication, and triumph. It is my hope that the photographs in this book offer a genuine and meaningful look at some of the women from Divas, and the powerful stories of their lives.

About the Author

David Steinberg is a photographer, author, editor, and publisher. His other books include Photo Sex: Fine Art Sexual Photography Comes of Age; Erotic by Nature: A Celebration of Life, of Love, and of Our Wonderful Bodies; The Erotic Impulse: Honoring the Sensual Self; and Fatherjournal: Five Years of Awakening to Fatherhood. He is Associate Editor of Sexuality and Culture magazine, and U.S. photo representative for Cupido magazine (Norway/Denmark). His photography and writing have appeared in such journals as Salon, Playboy, Boston Phoenix, Los Angeles Weekly, SF Weekly, The Sun, Libido, The Gay and Lesbian Review, On Our Backs, The Realist, Clean Sheets, Transgender Tapestry, Journal of Gender Studies, and Issues in Radical Therapy. He lives in San Francisco.

Edition details

• Publisher: Red Alder Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0914906054
• ISBN 13: 9780914906056
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 64