Loren Cameron

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Loren Rex Cameron
Born 1959
Pasadena, California
Occupation Photographer, author, visual artist
Height 5’ 3”
Weight 113 lbs.

Loren Rex Cameron (born 1959) is an American photographer, author and transsexual activist.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Loren Rex Cameron was born in Pasadena, California in 1959. He moved to rural Arkansas in 1968 after his mother's death, where he describes himself as being raised as a tomboy on his father's farm. After identifying as a lesbian at the age of sixteen, he encountered homophobic hostility in the small town where he lived. This motivated him to quit school and run away from home to travel the country and work hard scrabble jobs. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1979 where he lived as a part of the lesbian community until the age of twenty-six, when he faced his discomfort with his female body and gender. His interest in photography began as he documented his own transition. Having no formal training, in 1993 Cameron taught himself the rudiments of photography and began to respectfully photograph himself and other transsexuals.

[edit] Personal life

Loren Rex Cameron currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and continues his photographic work and lectures.

[edit] Works

Loren Rex Cameron's photography and writing was first collected in Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits, a book documenting his personal experience with the transition from female to male, his life as a man, and the everyday lives of transmen he knew. Body Alchemy was met with much positive criticism and ended up a double 1996 Lambda Literary Award winner. It remains his most well-known work, although he has since published other works, including an e-book, and three books through Cuerpos Pintados, which focused on transsexual nudes. Cameron's photographs have been exhibited in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, and has also been published in several books by other authors, including Transgender Warriors (Leslie Feinberg, 1996) and Constructing Masculinity: Discussions in Contemporary Culture (Routledge, 1995), as well as in numerous magazines.[1][2] Cameron also makes lectures about his work throughout the United States at institutions including Smith College, Harvard, Cornell, Brown University, the University of California at Berkeley, Penn State University, Washington University in St. Louis and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has been a guest speaker at the Society for Photographic Education Conference and the FTM International Conference, and interviewed on the Discovery Health Channel's LGBT-themed one-hour special Sex Change: Him to Her, BBC and in The New Yorker.[1][3][4] Cameron's photographs document the lives and bodies of both transsexual men and women and continues to spread the message in order to make transsexualism appear more positive and less taboo. His first published works (Body Alchemy and Man Tool: The Nuts and Bolts of Female-to-Male Surgery) consists largely of self-portraits, FTM body modifications, and portraits of other female to male transsexuals. More recently published work is a diverse and unprecedented representation of both female and male transsexuals, portraits and classical nudes (Photographs by Loren Cameron Volume 1 and 2, and Cameron Correspondence 1997-2003, Taller Experimental Cuerpos Pintados 2003). A current photographic project focuses on the sexuality of gay and bisexual FTMs.

[edit] Presentations

  • San Francisco Art Institute, 1994
  • School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1994
  • California College of Arts, 1996
  • San Francisco Camerawork, 1997
  • City Lights Books San Francisco, 1997
  • City University of New York, 1997
  • Harvard University, 1997
  • Massachusetts College of Arts, 1997
  • University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1997
  • University of Nebraska at Lincoln, 1997
  • University of Pennsylvania, 1997
  • Cal State Chico, 1998
  • Florida State University, 1998
  • University of California Santa Cruz, 1998
  • University of Southern California, 1998
  • Cal State Poly Pomona, 1998
  • Diverse Works Arts Space Houston Texas, 1999
  • Bates College Maine, 2000
  • Mills College California, 2000
  • University of California Berkeley, 1996/2000
  • University of Buffalo New York, 2000
  • Agnes Scott College Georgia, 2001
  • DePauw University Indiana, 2001
  • Earlham College Indiana, 2001
  • Ohio State University, 2001
  • University of Connecticut, 2001
  • University of Denver at Auroria, 2001
  • University of Madison, Wisconsin, 2001
  • University of Maryland 2001,
  • University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, 2001
  • University of Missoula Montana, 2001
  • University of Toledo Ohio, 2000
  • University of Vermont, 2001
  • Penn State Behrend, 2001
  • Brown University, 2002
  • Cornell University New York, 2002
  • New York University, 2002
  • Minnesota State University, 2002
  • Smith College Massachusetts, 2002
  • University of Oregon, 2002
  • University of Arkansas Fayetteville, 2003
  • University of California Berkeley, 2003
  • University of Maine Orono, 2003
  • University of Ohio Athens, 2003
  • Ohio State University at Bowling Green, 2003
  • Duke University, 2004
  • SUNY Fredonia, 2004
  • University of California Santa Cruz, 2004
  • University of Delaware, 2004
  • University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, 2004
  • University of North Carolina Chappel Hill, 2004
  • University of California Irvine, 2005
  • Washington University St. Louis, 2005
  • Sonoma State University California, 2006
  • University of California Berkeley, 2006
  • University of Minnesota, 2007
  • Carleton College, 2007
  • Virginia Commonwealth University, 2007
  • Penn State, 2007
  • University of Nebraska Hastings, 2007
  • University of Arizona Tucson, 2007
  • American University D.C., 2008

[edit] Books by Loren Cameron

[edit] Reviews and articles in magizines and other books

  • Birmingham Institute of Art and Design - Dept. of Arts - Article Press, Birmingham, UK, 2007
  • The Transgender Reader - by Susan Stryker, Ben Singer, et al, Temple University Press, 2007
  • Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs - Edited by Jonathan Ames, Vintage Press, 2005
  • Athanor XXIII - Florida State University, Dept. of Art History, The Museum of Fine Arts Press, 2005 - Essay by Stefanie Snider.
  • Queer Theory - by Ian Morland, Palgrave, 2004
  • Light in the Darkroom: Photography and the Realization of Loss - by Jay Prosser, University of Minnesota Press, 2004
  • Camera Obscura 56 : Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies - Vol. 19, Number 2, Duke University Press 2004 Article by Melanie Taylor P.h.D. (critical analysis of Romaine Brooks and Loren Cameron’s work, artist’s photographs illustrate)
  • The Transiting Self: The Nude Self-Portraits of Transman Loren Cameron and Hermaphrodyke Del La Grace Volcano - by Tee A. Corinne - College Art Association Conference paper, 2002
  • Gender Issues In Art Therapy - by Susan Hogan, PhD., JKP Press, 2002
  • Exploring the Dimensions of Human Sexuality - by Jerrold Greenberg, Clint Bruess, and Debra Haffner, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2001 and second edition, 2002
  • Bisexual Spaces - by Claire Hemmings, Routledge Publishing, 2002
  • Extremities - Edited by Jason Tougaw and Nancy K. Miller, The University of Illinois Press, 2002
  • The Woman I Was Not Born To Be - by Aleshia Brevard, Temple University Press, 2001
  • Advocate, 2001
  • Frontiers, 1999
  • Second Skins: The Body Narratives of Transsexuality - by Jay Prosser, The Columbia University Press, New York, 1998
  • Bang, 1998
  • Gay Times UK, 1998
  • Circles, 1998
  • Marie Claire (Italy), 1998
  • Domain Matrix: Performing Lesbian at the End of Print Culture - by Sue Ellen Case, Indiana Press, 1997
  • Psychology - First and Second editions, college text by Don/Sandra Hockenbury, Worth Publishers, 1997
  • F2M - by Aaron Devor, P.h.D., Indiana Press, 1997
  • Hx for Her, 1997
  • Citizen K International, 1997
  • Diva, 1997
  • B-Glad, 1997
  • Next Magazine, 1997
  • Utne Reader, 1996
  • Out, 1996
  • Puckered Up, 1996
  • Out Magazine, 1996
  • Fabula, 1996
  • Gay By The Bay - by Susan Stryker/Jim Van Buskirk, Chronicle Books, 1996
  • Blending Genders: Social Aspects of Cross Dressing and Sex Changing, 1996
  • Transgender Warriors - by Leslie Feinberg, Beacon Press, 1996
  • Constructing Masculinity - Academic Essays, Routledge Publishing, 1995
  • Deneuve, 1994
  • Camerawork: A Journal of Photographic Arts, 1994
  • Girlfriends, 1994/1997
  • The New Yorker, 1991
  • On Our Backs, 1991 and 1995

[edit] Awards, honors, and recognitions

  • Lambda Literary Award, Inaugural Transgender Category, 1997
  • Lambda Literary Award, Small Press Category, 1997
  • Lambda Literary Award Nominee, Best Photography Category, 1997
  • Inaugural Pride Award FTM Intl., 1997
  • Lambda Literary Award, 1996

[edit] References and footnotes

All biographical information is taken from Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits and the biography section of Online Alchemy as of January 27, 2007.

  1. ^ a b Selected Résumé, Online Alchemy, January 27, 2007
  2. ^ Author details, Amazon.com, January 27, 2007
  3. ^ Presentations, Online Alchemy, January 27, 2007
  4. ^ Body Alchemy details, IFGE Books, January 27, 2007

[edit] Selected filmography

Film and Television (a partial list)

  • Taboo - "Sexual Identity", Beyond Productions Inc. for National Geographic Channel (documentary profiling artist in segment, including image usages, 2006).
  • Boy I Am - Samantha Feder Productions (documentary profiling Body Alchemy, and photo usages, 2006).
  • Sex Changes - Beyond Productions Inc. for Discovery Health Channel (television documentary profiling artist in segment, photograph usages, 2005).
  • Sex Files III (Sexual Secrets) - Exploration Production Inc. for Discovery Channel (television documentary profiling Body Alchemy, Man Tool, and image usages, 2002).
  • Boys Don’t Cry - Kimberly Peirce (the feature film lists acknowledgment to Body Alchemy in film credits as Loren Cameron, 1999).
  • 60 Minutes - Television news segment about artist’s exhibition/artist in residency at UC Santa Cruz, CA. 1998.
  • You Don’t Know Dick: Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men - Northern Light Productions (documentary for film and television profiling artist, contracting photographic usages, 1997).
  • TV Japan - Television news segment profiling artist and photographs 1997.
  • Globo TV Brazil - Television news segment about artist with photo usages 1997.
  • SBTV Brazil - Television news segment profiling artist, with photo usages 1997.
  • The BBC Channel 4 - Television documentary segment about photographer with photos 1995.

[edit] Quotes

  • "What was initially a crude documentation of my own personal journey quickly evolved into an impassioned mission. Impulsively, I began to photograph other transsexuals that I knew, feeling compelled to make images of their emotional and physical triumphs. I was fueled by my need to be validated and wanted, in turn, to validate them. I wanted the world to see us, I mean, really see us."

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Cameron, Loren
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Transsexual photographer, author, visual artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Pasadena, California
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH