The Kids of Camp I Am

The Kids of Camp I Am is part of a decade-long series that began with, You Are You, a photo essay, monograph, and documentary, of participants at a pioneering retreat for gender-expansive children and their families called Camp I Am. With my follow-up project, The Kids of Camp I Am, my intention is to reach beyond the confines of the camp to contribute to the important discourse about support in the lives of gender-creative children, and to hear, in their own voice, from the participants a decade later. I seek to open a dialogue about how non-judgmental environments can provide crucial, life-changing support, paving a road with wide-ranging gender expressions in life.

I came to this project not just as a documenter, but as a participant. When my son was three years old, we began to notice his fascination with his reflection, teetering in my heels, the higher the heel the brighter he shone. It was through observing him as he anxiously and joyously layered on and tore off bright fabrics, all the while despairing that he was not born a girl, that I began to seek out other families with like-minded children. This resulted in my deeply personal engagement with this pioneering community.

My goal is to photograph and interview twenty-five more former campers for a book I view as an important component of the project, raising its profile and expanding its reach worldwide. The visual perspective of the project at once intimate and universal, emotionally vulnerable and heroic.