Trans New York: Photos and Stories of Transgender New Yorkers

(Hardback)

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A visually stunning, landmark photography book of transgender New Yorkers, complete with thought-provoking and revealing interviews that honor the transgender community and the courage it takes to find oneself and defy societal norms.

A growing portion of the LGBTQ+ community identifies as transgender; they are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters; actors, writers, singers, and politicians; young, old, black, white, Latinx, and Asian; farmers, suburbanites, and New Yorkers. But trans people today face the same challenges that gay people faced in the 1980s, often forced to the periphery of society by prejudice and fear and subject to a lack of legal representation, workplace harassment, and insufficient healthcare. And while an increasing amount of people report that they personally know a transgender person, trans people still contend with the stigma, violence, and discrimination that accompanies a lack of representation and a lack of visibility.

After traveling the world as a documentary photographer, Peter Bussian returned home to New York City and decided to focus his lens on his transgender neighbors. He met with people who identify as trans, genderqueer, or gender nonbinary, and often their significant others, friends, or family members. His photos capture them on the streets of New York and at their favorite haunts. The result is intimate access to a population all-too-often underrepresented or misrepresented in popular media. In his stunning, expertly shot photos and accompanying interviews of fifty New Yorkers, we see the power of individuality, the raw and complex expressions of identity that New York City welcomes, and joyful, poignant journeys toward self-acceptance.

One of the first books of its kind and a visual tour de force, Trans New York gives rare and remarkable insights into the journey of transition, combats misconceptions and stereotypes, and celebrates the autonomous articulation of sexuality, gender, and self that New York, in all of its beauty, honesty, and compassion, welcomes.

Reviews

If a picture says a thousand words, fifty pictures of trans people along with their written experiences tell a story in a uniquely hopeful way, asking readers to see the humanity and complexity of the trans community and all of the different people within it.
Publishers Weekly

An award-winning photographer best known for his work in conflict zones has turned his lens on New Yorks transgender community with stunning results.
The Article

Trans New Yorkis an astonishing book that balances the extraordinary and the ordinary to create something closeto truth. Bussian's photographs are elegant and beautiful in their normality, often sitting at odds with the brutalrealities of life as told by New York's trans community. A fine and mature piece of work.
Andrea Busfield, Journalist and Author of Born Under a Million Shadows

Peter Bussian's photographs are subtle, respectful, interesting, and arresting, which make for an important book at animportant time.
Jack Parsons, Photographer

Peter's book is a celebration of life where the images are speaking a valid and understandable language. The subjects are as beautiful, comfortable, or awkward as others breathing the same air and experiencing the same sunlight and darkness. Their unique stories transmit value and transcend societal barriers across the world.
Jamal Shah, Actor and Director General of the Pakistan National Council of the Arts

Peter Bussian's book is beautiful. New York City in all its grit, glamour, and uniqueness serves as a perfect backdrop in the telling of the remarkable stories of the proud, brave, beautiful trans community Mr. Bussian profiles. Each person's story is totally singular in the telling and photography. I came away with a greater understanding of and respect for all of these beautiful souls who are living their truth, and a real yearning for the city they call home.
Arianna Zukerman, Opera Singer and Educator

An extraordinary visual essay on love, courage, and finding oneself.
Raynbow Affair Magazine

Trans New York is a beautiful depiction of the trans individuals and community that make up the city. Photographed all over New York and set to backdrops that range from iconic landmarks toprivate spaces to lesser-known city blocks, the settings are as beautiful, interesting, and varied as the subjects themselves. Just as New York is not only one thing, not just the empire statebuilding, nor only Flushing, Queens, or Williamsburg, Brooklyn, not just SoHo or Central Park, this book deftly and elegantly displays the trans community in all their divergent beauty.
Alyssa Blumstein, photographer of People of the Pride Parade

Whats striking are the photos themselves; both in their beauty and how normal the portraits are.
Palo Alto Weekly

I learned so much from reading this book and I recommend this book to everybody.
Stacy White, The Etiquette Show

Author Bio

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 he has worked in other post-conflict countries in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa, often collaborating with local artists and media creators. His photographs have been published by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Cond Nast Traveler, O, The Oprah Magazine, Paris Match, El Palacio, and elsewhere, and exhibited in domestic and international galleries. Bussian has also created documentary films and written narrative screenplays. His photography book Passage to Afghanistan was published in 2016. Bussian spent most of his childhood in Colorado and has lived in New York City for the past twenty-five years.

Abby Stein is an educator, speaker, and trans activist. She was raised male in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn, New York, and her family is a direct descendent of Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism. In her Hasidic community, she attended Yeshiva, completing a rabbinical degree in 2011. In 2012, she left the Hasidic world to explore different worldviews, and in 2015 she came out as a woman of trans experience. Since coming out, shes been working to raise awareness and support people going through a similar experience. Her story has been covered by the New York Times, New York Post, New York magazine, Jewish Daily Forward, Daily Mail, NBC, and many other outlets, and shes appeared on media such as Fox News, CNN, HuffPost Live, and ShowTime. Shes also the author of Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman. In 2016 Stein was named by the Jewish Week as one of the 36 Under 36 young Jews who are affecting change in the world. She is currently a student at Columbia University, studying womens and gender studies and political science. She lives in New York, NY.