This Body Was Carved From Stone explores and reflects on my experience as a transgender man, and the effect this has had on my life and my relationships with the people around me. I explore both the positives and the negatives of this experience: the difficulties I faced whilst navigating childhood and puberty, but also the joy I’ve found in discovering myself and defining my own identity.

Questioning my identity and sense of self over the years has led me to develop a deeply complex relationship with gender. This internal journey I’ve been on since childhood was externalised once I began my social and medical transition, choosing to show the outside world the person I have always known myself to be. Through my photographic self-portraiture, I am learning to carve a space for myself within a hostile social landscape that actively rejects and denies my existence. I use the camera to show my reality as I see and experience it, and to record both the physical and emotional changes I go through as my transition progresses. My journey is one of intensive self-reflection, self-liberation, and learning to take pride in my identity.