Trans New York: An Extraordinary Visual Essay On Love, Courage And Finding Oneself

A growing portion of our communities identify as transgender; they are family members, friends, neighbors and colleagues, and yet they are all-too-often stigmatized and misunderstood. This visual tour de force meets that challenge head-on by presenting exquisite portraits of more than fifty New Yorkers who identify as trans, genderqueer, or gender nonbinary, and interviews with them in which they reveal in their own words who they are and what their transitions were like, and combat common misconceptions and stereotypes.

To make this landmark volume, internationally-renowned documentary photographer Peter Bussian returned home to New York City and met with people who identify as trans, genderqueer, or gender nonbinary. His vibrant, honest photographs were taken on the streets of New York or in iconic places like Grand Central Station, and together the photos and interviews provoke questions on gender identity, the gender spectrum, and gender expectations. In total, this is an unparalleled articulation of what defines gender and sexuality, as well as a vibrant celebration of the power of finding oneself and a compelling call for respect and acceptance.

In addition to enlightening text from more than fifty members of the trans community and author and award-winning documentary photographer Peter Bussian, there are inspiring longer essays by people featured in the book and a foreword by the celebrated trans activist Abby Chava Stein, who was raised male in a Hasidic community, received a rabbinical degree in 2011, and in 2015, came out as a woman of trans experience.

Peter Bussian is an award-winning documentary photographer, filmmaker, and creative consultant who has spent more than twenty years working in developing countries for organizations such as the United Nations, the United States Agency for International Development, the Department for International Development (UK), and nongovernmental organizations. Since 2001, he has spent the equivalent of nearly five years in Afghanistan, traveling there over a fifteen-year period, and has also worked in other post-conflict countries in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa, often collaborating with local artists and media creators.

Peter’s photographs have been published in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Paris Match, Conde Nast Traveller, O, The Oprah Magazine, El Palacio, and elsewhere, and exhibited in Gallery 169 and Sharq Gallery, both in Los Angeles, as well as the Council on Foreign Relations and Sunnen Gallery in New York City, and the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe. Recently, images from the book were shown in a gallery in Pakistan and Bussian was praised for them by the president of Pakistan. Peter has also created documentary films and written narrative screenplays. His prior book, A Passage to Afghanistan, was published in 2016. Bussian spent most of his childhood in Colorado, but has been based in New York City for the past twenty-five years. For more information, please visit: www.peterbussian.com.