Abaixa Que é tiro

“Abaixa Que é Tiro" is a project to celebrate the beauty, diversity and fight of Brazilians transvestites.

"Abaixa Que é Tiro" (it is an expression used by the Brazilian LGBT community that means means 'be careful because something really awesome/fabulous is about to hit you').

For the last 4 years I've photographed more than 60 trans women and transvestites for my project, "Abaixa Que é Tiro". I feel privileged to have gained the confidence of these people to the point of having had access to them in such an intimate way and with that to achieve my goal that was to show the world the beauty, the diversity and especially the fight of the Brazilian transvestites. I live in the most transphobic society on the planet where these people are basically seen as prostitutes and associated with nightlife, so when I started thinking about making this project viable I thought it was important to contribute in building a more realistic perception of these women. With this in mind I decided to photograph them in domestic environment and with natural light and only bodies without surgical intervention, precisely to show their natural beauty and to prove that it isn’t necessary any surgery for a trans woman to be a woman; after all, does passing as woman defines being one?

I had the opportunity to witness the transition of some of these women and I have seen the emergence of gorgeous transvestites, a lovelly process which is not given due value because our society is still stuck to the binary pattern, which makes it difficult to accept, appreciate and realize how incredible these people are and, mostly, how their bodies with boobs and dicks are perfect and deserve to be respected and validated as much as my cisgender woman's body is, after all, we are all females.