Final image evaluation

Image 1

This is the establishing shot of iAMquinn, and a lot of people will probably question why I decided to photograph Quinn with her eyes shut, as this tends to be something photographers avoid. However, the image is a lot more meaningful than just a shot of Quinn with her eyes closed, it represents the start of what I call the ‘blink’. This won’t be evident to the audience until they have viewed the last image, if they even pick up the symbolism of the beginning and end image as it is not very clear unless an viewer is really analysing the images. For viewers with a keen eye, they will discover that Quinn never actually looks at the camera until the end image, this was done to symbolise Quinn’s lack of confidence when facing people as the self she wants to be, but gradually with iAMquinn she gained the confidence to look people in the eyes. I think the image works well as an establishing image, as it causes intrigue for the viewer, but does not give much information about the project or the following images.

Image 2

This image was created to represent Quinn’s fear of embarrassment, particularly in a public setting. The image utilises the use of slow shutter speed, in addition to some post-production work. I think the image is not too simple in it’s attempt to represent it’s message, which is what I like about a lot of the images in iAMquinn, they don’t necessarily show an audience directly what I intended them to mean, so the audience can interpret them however they wish to do so. This particular image means a lot to me and to the project, as I noticed a change in Quinn’s confidence when we were in public and wanted to portray this particular issue. Furthermore the splashes of red in the image symbolise the danger Quinn feels she is in when she is in public, this is also an issue that non-binary people living in the UK have highlighted. In a survey done by the online publication Beyond the Binary, out of 79 non-binary people, 100% said that they felt uncomfortable living in the UK, and 94% felt unsafe. So the issue that this image is portraying, is not just an problem that Quinn faces, but it is something that is felt by other people who are non-binary and living in the UK.

Image 3

This image is one of the more literal images included in iAMquinn, the image shows Quinn in a dark room all by herself, symbolising the loneliness she sometimes feels. I think of the image as a snapshot from when Quinn initially told her family that she was non-binary, as she was not truly supported by her Mum, Dad or Sister. This is a literal visual representation of not just Quinn’s loneliness, but many other non-binary people who are rejected or unsupported by friends, family and society. Furthermore, the image has resinated not just with those who are non-binary, but everyone at one point in their lives feels alone or isolated, and I want this image to be one that everyone can relate to, whether they feel alone now or have done in their past. Including this image in iAMquinn is a good way to show the bad times that Quinn has in her life, but that walking past this image, there are happier times ahead. So although the image shows a negative time in Quinn’s life, what I want the audience to take away from the image is that there are more positive times ahead.

Image 4

This image is neither a positive or negative image in iAMquinn, it simply exists. The image shows Quinn in her own ‘bubble’, she isn’t happy or sad, she is just at peace. I wanted to include this image because at the start of the semester, I decided to add more positive images into the body of work, and I decided I wanted to include a neutral image as well. I do not want an audience to look at iAMquinn as their only form of education on what it means or what it is like to be non-binary and think that it is a rollercoaster of happy and sad times. There are times in Quinn’s life where she is at peace with herself and with the world, and can live peacefully alongside everyone else without feeling judged or worried. I also decided to use very neutral colours in the image to further this symbolism, such as greens and browns.

Image 5

This is the first positive/happy image that is included in iAMquinn, the image depicts Quinn feeling safe and happy when she is with her friends. Quinn’s friends were the first people that she told that she was non-binary, they are the first people to call her Quinn, and they were the first people to support her. I have always known that Quinn’s friends play an important role in her life, and I wanted to incorporate this into iAMquinn. This was a difficult image to create, but is possibly one of the least posed images included in iAMquinn. Quinn was reluctant to let herself laugh on camera, which made the image difficult to create, and to capture a genuine smile. As I mentioned earlier, if iAMquinn is viewed by an audience who do not have knowledge of non-binary, I would not want them to think that being non-binary is a sad and lonely life, so it was important to me to include more positive images of Quinn to create a well rounded representation of her life as a non-binary teenager, which is the whole concept behind iAMquinn.

Image 6

This is the only candid image being included in iAMquinn, it was taken on a family holiday and is a moment of peace in Quinn’s life. The blue in the image symbolises calmness, tranquility and acceptance, which is also what the image conveys. the image also gives a sense of balance, in Quinn’s life and in the photograph itself, with Quinn in the middle, with an equal amount of sea on each side. Again, the photograph is in-keeping with the theme of iAMquinn; there is no eye contact between Quinn and the audience. The image is quite mysterious and is left open for the audience to interpret the image as they wish, they can picture themselves in the image and think about what they would be thinking about stood looking out at the ocean.

Image 7

This is the first image that I created for iAMquinn in semester 2, I had had the idea in semester 1 but I was hesitant about actually creating the image because I did not want to upset my Mum or Dad by showing Quinn burning an image of Ben. Yet, I wanted to create the image because I knew that it would be a strong visual representation of Quinn moving on from her past and becoming who she really is. After I spoke to my family, I was surprised to learn that they did not have an issue with me creating the images. This is a ver powerful image, and although it seems quite literal, there are other …. that can be taken from the images. For example, although the image does depict Quinn moving on from the ‘Ben’ part of her life, it also represents Quinn taking control of her life and becoming who she wants to be. The yellow flame also represents happiness, creativity and warmth, which is something I wanted to convey through the image, as I don’t want the image to be completely negative about Quinn moving on from her past. She doesn’t reject or ignore her past and her birth name, but is accepting that she is moving on. I also decided that this image is going to be a square image, this is because as humans we cannot view the world as square, and as these images represent memories, thoughts and fears and so I want to change the reality in which the images are viewed. Furthermore, to me, this image is representing a dream, this isn’t a memory of Quinn’s, she has never burned images of her old self, which is also why the image is square, to hint that this is in fact a dream.

Image 8

This is one of the first happier images I took for iAMquinn, but this is from my own perspective. When I was thinking about ideas for creating more positive images, I thought about when I see Quinn at her happiest and for me that is when she is sat on her laptop watching videos. However, I didn’t want to take a simply portrait of Quinn on her laptop, so I decided to add fairy lights to create a more visually interesting image of Quinn. This is the only image that wasn’t a collaboration between myself and Quinn, this was solely an idea that I wanted to so, so it is the only image truly from my own perspective in iAMquinn, because this is how I see Quinn when I imagine her happy.

Image 9

I think this is one of the more haunting images in iAMquinn, and one that had a lot of more post-production work. The image represents the different people in Quinn’s life, pushing and pulling her into different directions and opinions that she doesn’t necessarily  want to go in. Each arm symbolises a different opinion that Quinn has heard once she came out as non-binary, from family, friends, teachers and therapists, not all of them negative but opinions none the less.  Quinn’s pose displays vulnerability,  and this is very obvious to the audience, they can see the pain that the opinions/arms are causing Quinn, which is what I wanted the image to convey, without showing Quinn’s facial expression. Furthermore, all the hands in the image are mine, this was initially for the aesthetics of the image, as I wanted all the hands to look the same, but this also represents the first person that had a negative reaction to Quinn, which was myself. I forced my opinion onto Quinn straight away, and so the hands all being mine represents this, although the audience has no indicators to let them know that these are my hands.

Image 10

I decided that I wanted to put myself into iAMquinn, as many of these images in the project come from my perspective of Quinn’s life, with a slight input from Quinn. To both myself and Quinn, our relationship is something that iAMquinn has helped to repair, and I felt that that was important to show within the body of work. Helping our relationship was something that I wanted to get out of creating iAMquinn, as well as helping myself to understand Quinn’s situation. The image represents the idealistic times in our relationship as siblings, when we aren’t fighting or annoying each other, I portrayed us this way because I wanted to emphasise the positiveness of our friendship. This is the second and final image that is square in the series, as I explained on image 7, I am changing the reality in which the images are viewed. As we know memories change and alter, and are sometimes hard to remember, the squareness of the image and the way it is viewed represents this. This is the second image that is family related, the two images (7&10) are larger than the rest of the images to parallel a family portrait that would be hung in front room.

Image 11

In Specialist Techniques and Processes 3, I decided that I did not want Quinn to have eye contact with the camera in any of the images, and this represented the lack of confidence she has when being face to face with new people, and the lack of confidence when looking at herself. Throughout the entire project, Quinn has not looked directly into the camera, but I decided the last image should be in the audience’s face, unapologetic eye contact as it were. The image is fascinating at first glance, the detail in Quinn’s eyes is intriguing. As a society, we don’t tend to see all the detail in someones eye as it is inappropriate to be that close to someone’s face. However, once the audience moves past the initial fascination with Quinn’s eyes, the image is quite an uncomfortable image to look at, the stare coming from Quinn is uneasy to view for long periods of time, as it is in complete violation of the theme running through iAMquinn. Furthermore, this image completes what I refer to as the ‘blink’. As you will recall, the first image (above) I am presenting is similar to this image, but Quinn has her eyes shut. This is because I wanted to create a ‘blink’, the audience will walk through the hanging images, and it will be as though they are walking through Quinn’s mind. The images I am presenting are memories, thoughts and fears, and so they all happen within the blink of an eye, which is what image 1 and image 11 show.

Softwares and Processes I use

There are several different ways I transfer my images when I have undertaken a commission for a customer. The method I use depends on the customer and the type of job. For example when I set up work days with Make-Up Artists (MUA) I tend to photograph up to ten different models in a day, for ten different MUAs. I offer 2 retouched images for £20, and very few usually want anymore than 2 images of a look. I use WeTransfer ( https://wetransfer.com/) to give each customer their images, as there are only usually 2 images I am sending, I can use WeTransfer for free (up to 2gb) so I don’t have to charge the client any more for the transferring of the images.

When I am working with a client that has booked me for a 2 hour photo shoot, such as a family session or new born session, I offer the images on a pen drive, and the price changes depending on whether the client would like to provide the pen drive themselves, or would like me to provide one. I like offering this to a client because I think it is nice for them to have the option.

When selecting images for clients, again it depends on what kind of commission I am working on. When working with the MUA’s, I create a contact sheet of the images (minus test shots or mistakes) and they send me back two reference numbers for the two images they would like retouching. When working on a family or new born type shoot, I decided the images the customers receive, as they tend to get around 15 to 20 images on the pen drive. I also send proofs over to the client as I edit, to check that everything looks how the customer wants it to.

Printing and sizes

What have I done?

Below is an email exchange between myself and Rob knight at Knight Graphics in Sowerby Bridge.

I went to Proam in Bradford to do a test print of one of the images, as I originally wanted to print the images there, but I knew that Proam often has trouble with it’s reds being too saturated, and are often dull prints. These fears were confirmed by my test print, but I also noticed that when I printed at 16″x12″, my images distorted ever so slightly, but it was noticeable enough. I didn’t understand why this was happening to my images, and when I did some research into the crop of my sensor on my camera, I found that other people had had this problem too. I have a Canon 760D, and have never had issues printing from it before, but the way I have cropped some of the images doesn’t allow them to comfortably print at 16″x12″. The images I have not cropped, still will only print at 16″x10.667″.

Dimensions of my camera crop: https://www.digicamdb.com/specs/canon_eos-760d/

So I have decided to print the images as the longest side at 16″, 9 of the images will print at 16″x10.667″ and 2 will print larger and squarer. they will be presented in a 12×16″ photo box, and I am going to trim the 12×16″ down because I want the images to look consistent.

The two images that will be presented square and larger than the rest of the images, this is because I am changing the reality in which the images would be viewed. As humans we cannot view anything square, even if we close one eye. I have decided to have images 7 and 10 will be square, because all of the images are memories, thoughts and fears, they wouldn’t all be viewed how human eyes see the world. The two images I have chosen to be square are the two images I view as family related. Image 7 is of Quinn burning and image of Ben, symbolising moving on from her past and her family having to do so as well, and image 10 is of myself and Quinn, which shows the development of our relationship as siblings and the impact iAMquinn has had.

My outlook on iAMquinn

What have I gotten from creating iAMquinn?

iAMquinn has acted as a form of phototherapy for myself, and for Quinn. The project has allowed me to understand, from Quinn’s point of view, what being non-binary actually means.

Like a lot of people, when Quinn first told me she was non-binary I didn’t believe such a thing existed, how can one person be neither male or female? I have grown up in a world where there were only two genders, yes people were sometimes born in the wrong bodies, but I had no problem with gay or transgender people, I thought of myself as rather open minded. And yet, when my brother told me he didn’t have a gender, my world almost turned upside down, I had heard of people who were non-binary, I mocked them and made light of their situations (no one I knew personally), I believed the lies the media was feeding us about these people who I thought were offended at the slightest joke about gender, and believed that they wanted to get rid of gender roles all together.

I was dead against the idea of non-binary, and the thought of using different pronouns and a different name for a person I had known for 17 years offended me. This was MY brother, MY Ben not some person who I didn’t know, or an ‘event’ in my family that I would have to explain to every person who knew Ben, especially when I didn’t quite understand it myself.

iAMquinn allowed me to see and understand different side to non-binary that I wasn’t aware of. I never thought about how difficult this transition was for a person, how many different things they would have to go through just to be there own selves. I always knew that Quinn had self-doubt and a lack of confidence when dealing with new people or strangers, but I never understood why because Ben was such a confident person when about family and friends. It soon became obvious that he was terrified of people who didn’t know him, judging him and reacting negatively, but I didn’t understand why he felt that way.

And so, I feel like I have gotten a lot from creating iAMquinn, not only has it helped me to reconcile with my sibling, but has helped myself understand more about her situation. It has allowed me to research the crisis non-binary people are facing living in the UK, and how our media and representations of them is doing nothing but hurting their credibility and how they are viewed. In a study done by the online magazine Beyond the Binary, of 79 non-binary people living in the UK, 100% said that they felt uncomfortable living in the UK, and 94% felt unsafe living in the UK. Non-binary people are not protected by any laws, they are discriminated against on a regular basis, impacting employment, salary and access to services. This is unfair and it isn’t morally right, we have a duty to protect everyone in our country, and we should all have the same rights and access to healthcare, employment and housing, regardless of age, race or how we identify ourselves. I admit that I haven’t always felt this way, as mentioned above, but I truly believe that this was because of the lies and stereotypes that the media presented to me about non-binary people, and the reason I no longer feel this way is because of my research and exposure to the truth about those who are non-binary. I think that iAMquinn will educate people about the non-binary, and if it doesn’t at least it gives exposure to non-binary and more people will know about the problem people in our country are facing, and how it is wrong.

Mentors

In September 2017 I began working at Vicky Leanne Photography, a photographic studio in Atherton, Manchester that has been a prestigious business for 25 years (http://www.vickyleanne.co.uk/). Vicky Fitzmaurice is the owner and head photographer at Vicky Leanne Photography, and also my photographic mentor. I have shown Vicky images from iAMquinn throughout the last 6 months, and she has helped me make decisions about including images, different techniques to use and helped me develop ideas for the project. I found it really help to have Vicky as a mentor, firstly for her 25 years experience, but also for her keen commercial eye. As Vicky is first and foremost a wedding and children photographer, she has a keen knowledge of trends and how to create commercial looking images, which has led to an interesting insight on iAMquinn.

Working at Vicky Leanne Photography has also led me to gaining a Graphic Designer mentor as well. Carl Davis has worked at the business for around 15 years, and is the head Graphic Designer and also a photographer. He does the post-production on most of the images and also designs the layout of wedding albums. I have spoke to Carl on a many an occasion, especially in relation to iAMquinn, as a lot of post-production went into the project, and sometimes I wanted to use tools on Photoshop that I was not sure how to use, or create effects and I wasn’t sure how to go about it. Furthermore, Carl is always learning and perfecting new techniques, and always shows me what he’s done and how he has done it.

Having two mentors that are both heavily involved in photography has been really helpful for iAMquinn problem solving, but also for ideas, and how to execute images well.  They are a specialist audience that I have been discussing iAMquinn with, and this has helped the project develop.

 

 

Tara Lesher Education Post

Tara Lesher Education is a photography Facebook page that I was introduced to by a fellow photographer. The page is a community for photographers to post their images and get constructive criticism for their images, ask questions about equipment or techniques or borrow and lend out props. I have posted on the page before with some of my animal images and really liked the advice I got, it was helpful. I decided to post iAMquinn onto the page with a small explanation of what the project is about, and asked for opinions on the images and the concept of the project because I wanted the opinion of a specialist audience. After a few hours I checked my Facebook expecting lots of comments, to find that my post had been deleted by the admin of the page.

I did some research into what other posts were allowed to stay public on the page and found other people who had asked for opinions on projects so I knew that was not the reason iAMquinn was deleted. I will never know the reason as to why iAMquinn had been deleted but I have my suspicions that it was because of the subject matter, if this was to have caused upset to any of the photographers on the page then I would understand this, but I did not get any explanation as to why the post was deleted and this angered me. This project is on trend according to Getty’s 2018 trends, and not only this but it is an issue in our society and photographic projects have the ability to spread awareness about the issue. If this was a project about a straight female struggling with depression, I would speculate and say that the post would not have been deleted, and probably would have been welcomed with open arms, so why was iAMquinn deleted? Are we in the photography community ignoring projects that explore what we don’t agree with or don’t want to hear about? I don’t think we are, but this photographic community I joined and thought I would be welcomed into has rejected me not based on my own photography, but based on the subject matter.

 

Tara Lesher Education Facebook page:

 

End Of Year Show

There are going to be 9 images presented in my end of year show, there will be 3 images from Specialist Techniques and Processes 3 and 6 images from Specialist Studio Practice 3. I have decided to include 3 images from the first semester of year 3 because I feel that they are my strongest images, and I want to put my best work up to present iAMquinn. The images will be hung off a beam in the centre of the Dye House Gallery, the audience will be able to walk through the images as if they are going alongside Quinn on a journey. I will attach poles over the beams so I can hang the images wider apart, rather than just in one straight line.

I was originally going to print the images at A2 and possibly the portrait orientated images at A1 so they were all the same width, but after looking at the gallery and deciding on the space we would each like, I would have enough space to print at A1 easily. The only problem with printing at A1 would be the cost of it, especially because I want to back the images so they hang flat and straight. I have been in contact with Rob Knight from Knight Graphics, and he has given me a price some printing I want doing for Studio Practice, and for 11 images all backed (16″ longest side) he has quoted me £82 + VAT, so it is possible that I can afford to print my end of year show images at A1 with Rob depending on the price (I have emailed him for a price).

I am also going to create a photobook of iAMquinn to put on a plinth at the exhibition, along with some business cards and a booklet that the class is going to design and print ourselves. I also want to create titles for each image and have them hanging next each print.

The images that will be presented in my end of year show, and the order they will be shown in:

 

Photoshop, Lightroom and Capture 1 Comparison

I have put the same raw file through Photoshop, Lightroom and Capture One to compare the quality and effectiveness of the softwares.

In each software I:

• Cropped the image
• Darkened the exposure
• Boosted the clarity
• Boosted the shadows
• Reduced the highlights
• Boosted the contrast and saturation

Photoshop:

Photoshop is the one software I use most in my work and photography, I know the software fairly well and can use it quickly and effectively. I have never had a problem with the quality of the mages in Photoshop, and I think the programme does a good job in retaining the quality of the Raw file through an endless list of alterations. I also spot healed Quinn’s face in the image to get rid of her acne, I did not do this on the other programmes as I struggled to even find the right tool to smooth Quinn’s face. The image has retained it’s quality really well, and the grain isn’t unsightly or distracting. I would very confidently print this image at a fairly large size without worrying about the quality of the image.

 

Lightroom:

I really struggled to just import one image into Lightroom, I usually import a new catalog and have never had any trouble uploading images into Lightroom. However, I do find how the developing section of Lightroom is set out, it is quick and easy to use. I think the image below is disgustingly grainy, and I am not happy with how the clarity slider makes Quinn’s skin look. Like I mentioned before, I could not figure out how to use a spot healing tool on Lightroom, or if there even is one. Getting rid of Quinn’s acne is really important to me, this is because I know that this is one of Quinn’s insecurities, as it is one of my own, and I don’t want Quinn to look at these images and hate the way she looks or the way her skin looks.

 

Capture One:

I think the image below is clearer than the image that went through Lightroom, but still not as sharp as the image that went through Photoshop. I don’t think the way Quinn’s skin looks is acceptable, she is very pale and I’m not sure how this is because I darkened the image a lot through the exposure, shadows and highlights. I also struggled the crop the image, although I had selected the crop, it was not until I was exporting the file that it got rid of the excess of the image, so I wasn’t sure if the image was even going to crop. This was also distracting when trying to edit the image further.  I do think the grain n the image is a lot more subtle than Lightroom, but boosting the contrast and saturation has really brought out the red in Quinn’s skin and ears.

The use of social media

Talk with Shy – 2/5/18 – the use of social media (NOTES)

 

What is social media

• Networking
• Connecting with people
• Sharing work
• To build communities
• Self-promotion
• Seeing other businesses
• Interacting and engaging with followers and friends

Why is it beneficial?

• Free
• Mass audience
• Instant
• Lots of people using it
• Easy to use

Nothing will beat your website – social media is good – but professional and serious = website

Types of social media

• Blogs – make people aware of who you are and what you do & get portfolio out
• Social network- expand connections by communicating
• Forums
• Micro-blogging – twitter
• Flicker – social book marking-store/categorize
• ‘tagging’
• Pintrest – curation

Looking at effectively using Facebook business page, and how to use all the features it uses

Looking at a website and its effectiveness – squarespace

 

In her talk, Shy taught us the importance of social media and the use of it to promote a business, in particular a Photography business. The use of Facebook, Instagram and a professional looking website in this day and age of technology is of great importance, it is the way society now gets it’s information and so having a presence on social media is a must have, especially when you’re first trying to establish your business. Shy also showed us some of the key tools that a Facebook page offers, such as it’s boost button or it’s analysing of data and ratings. She also showed us her website (on Square Space) and all the different tools that has, and how to use them to your best interest. I myself have a Facebook page for my business ‘Paige’s Photography’ and an Instagram page. These two social media sights are the two biggest platforms Paige’s Photography has in terms of an online presence, I don’t yet have a website, as a decent website is costly to run, however once I finish my degree this is my first order of business for Paige’s Photography. I could create a free website on WordPress but I want the website to look professional and well created.

interview with Quinn

What did you initially think when I introduced you to the idea of creating iAMquinn?

“I was excited and grateful, and I was thinking you’d come a long way from you’re initial reaction, which was saying you didn’t believe in non-binary. I thought it would be a good chance for me to a) get some good images of me, but also it could spread awareness, to show that we are real people with real lives and not how we are represented in the media; as sideshow freaks.”

How well do you think the project represents your experience of being non-binary?

“I think it does a good job of showing the various side of me, it doesn’t necessarily show what every non-gender trans kid is going through but it’s showing me. It shows how my relationships work with my friends and with you, but it also shows how bad it can get sometimes, but those relationships are always there.”

The images are going to be exhibited in the Dye House Gallery at Bradford College as part of the end of year show, how does it make you feel knowing that a lot of people are going to see the images?

“Excited! I’m not nervous of people seeing them, but I probably will be, especially because the prints are going to be so big, and I am naked on one of the images. We’ve created them now and I can’t take it back, but I don’t want to take it back, it will also be interesting to have a frame of reference to look back at in a few years time, especially once my body starts changing. I’m glad the project is at the start of my transition because it made me feel good about my body now, which helps with the dysphoria, and it will help to look back when I am feeling dysphoric again and be like ‘I loved myself then , so why should it any different now i’ve started to move towards to body I want?'”

Do you think the project has strengthened our relationship as siblings and as friends?

“Completely, it’s helped us to understand each other better, we’ve got a long way to go, but it’s nice, it’s nice to spend time with you and do something that we are both really proud of. It also helps that we have grown up, we’ve done a lot of growing in the 3 years you’ve been at university, and a lot of growing up in the last 7 months. When we first started, I was only a month into my first therapist and I was in a bad place, but it felt cool that you were trying to help me express that through an art form.”

what would you like people to learn from seeing iAMquinn?

“Acceptance of who you are, body positivity and to not be scared of change. Its not all doom and gloom, yes its difficult but at the same time, its exciting and wonderful because I’m discovering who am I so early in my life, and making plans to become my best self, its really exciting. There is a stigma around being trans, and it is that we’re all creeps wearing the ‘wrong’ clothes and we’re just doing it from attention. Hopefully I am Quinn will show that i’m a person and I just want to live my life whilst being myself and i’m not going to apologise for it, you can either get onboard or get out of the way. I think an exhibition is a really good way to that because it’s right there in the audiences face and it’s like saying to them ‘what are you going to do about it? nothing? I thought so.'”

Do you think the project has helped your family members becoming more accepting of you?

“With you yeah a lot, but mum and dad are still stuck in this scared phase and they don’t really understand, mums really angry a lot and scared that i’m making the wrong decision. And they can’t seem to wrap their heads around the fact that i’m an intelligent person and this wasn’t done on a whim, and that i’ve put over a year of thought into it before I even acted on it amongst my friends, and it was really difficult to do. It wasn’t like coming out as gay, I knew they would accept gay people because they’ve both got gay brothers, but trans is like a whole new world for them, I was terrified that I was gonna be told to shut up, or told that I was confused and that they wouldn’t help. So no I don’t think its helped them to become more accepting, but that could all change when they see the project in full, in a gallery along with all the information and hard work we’ve put into it.”

Do you think you would positively gain from continuing working on iAMquinn, past the point of a university project?

“Yeah because I am a huge advocate of artistic expression, especially through your struggles I think it’s a very healthy way to work through them, and having art that shows my journey through this time is actually really beautiful, and I think that represents me well as a person.”

For me, iAMquinn has acted almost as a therapy, creating the images helped me to understand what you’ve gone through and what you will go through, do you think iAMquinn has acted as a form of therapy for yourself as well?

“It was helpful because I was able to draw on my therapy to bring inspiration to the project, and it was useful to do the project because it helped me realise things about myself that I could then take to therapy and work on.”