Elle Pérez, "The Outliers," 2011
ELLE PÉREZ
Pronoun Workshop, 2011
From the series "The Outliers"
Digital print
Image: 9 x 13 inches; Framed: 10 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches
Courtesy of the artist
ELLE PÉREZ
Enakai Cutting Their Hair, 2011
From the series "The Outliers"
Digital print
Image: 25 x 20 inches; Framed: 27 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches
Courtesy of the artist
ELLE PÉREZ
Reilly's Breast, 2011
From the series "The Outliers"
Digital print
Image: 25 x 20 inches; Framed: 27 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches
Courtesy of the artist
CURRENTLY ON VIEW: Stamp 1st Floor, West Study Lounge
Enakai Cutting Their Hair was taken by Puerto Rican-American photographer Elle Pérez in Atlanta, Georgia. This work is a part of a series called “The Outliers,” for which Pérez traveled around the United States and made portraits of individuals who do not conform to a male/female gender binary and instead identify as genderqueer. Perez went to a range of venues, including gay bars, universities, and academic queer conferences, with the goal of meeting potential subjects. Pérez also identifies as genderqueer, and the project originated in the artist’s own personal exploration of gender identity.
Enakai Cutting Their Hair explores the extent to which genderqueer identity challenges the male/female binary. Pérez isolates Enakai’s body against a solid purple background, offering viewers a glimpse into a candid moment in Enakai’s life. Enakai presents themselves so that their biological sex cannot be identified, and Pérez uses many photographic tools to support this ambiguity. Pérez crops the image so that the viewer is only able to see Enakai’s upper body and uses dramatic lighting to illuminate Enakai’s face, casting the rest of their body in shadow. This cropping and lighting makes it difficult for the viewer to make out any defining physical characteristics that would classify Enakai as either male or female. Furthermore, Enakai is pictured in a shirt that may hint at femininity while the clippers with which they cut their hair gesture toward conventions of masculinity. Enakai’s deliberate androgyny and free intermixing of possessions typically coded as masculine or feminine challenge gender binaries and force the viewer to think critically about the spaces between and even beyond them.
Keyona Islar, UMD ‘17
Studio Art and Marketing
“The Outliers” series began when photographer Elle Pérez visited a “Faerie” sanctuary in rural Tennessee for seekers of radical queer community. Pérez was inspired there by people freely embracing identities between and beyond the male/female gender binary. “I found reading the stories and seeing the faces of others who were like me to be extremely important in my own self-identification and maturing process,” the artist has said. Later that year, Pérez set out across the United States to meet and document young people who identify as genderqueer. While making their portraits, Pérez took time to connect with subjects and learn their personal histories. Printing the results in sumptuous color, Pérez emphasizes the particularized beauty ofeach person and of the objects and environments through which they self-define.
Stamp Gallery, 2016