The project’s mission is to raise visibility for couples and their families.
“Visibility is validating,’’ B. Proud observed.
“It’s important for young trans people to see, I can have a life with a partner and be in love and have a future and perhaps a family.’’
In some portraits, there are children or a baby on the way. That was important for the artist, who said showing family life is one way to help others connect with the people in the photos.
While B. Proud was deeply inspired by the couples, at some point, she began feeling “Transcending Love’’ was only telling half the story.
“For LGBT people, it’s a dangerous time,’’ said B. Proud, who lives with wife Allison, and two dogs, Soleil and Cosette. “I’ve been to 24 states and photographed 70 couples, and as I was traveling, I felt something was missing, I felt that I wasn’t telling the whole story. I was celebrating all of this beauty and I was celebrating the humanity of the community, but there was another side to it.’’
While watching TV in a hotel one day, “it smacked me in the head.’’
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“Say Their Names: Violence Against the Trans Community’’ is a series of photographs memorializing the places — a riverbank, a Food Mart, a barbecue joint — where a trans person has been murdered.
While she’s aware that participating in “Transcending Love’’ can be validating for its subjects, such visibility also can put couples at risk, more risk than they already face daily, along with discrimination in everything from employment to housing to healthcare.
“If I show this work, and people just say, ‘This is really beautiful,’ then I’ve failed. It’s showing the beauty but also opening up the possibilities that we all need to do something to help this community, and this is why. People are dying. Sadly, everywhere I go, there is a trans person who has been murdered, and has grown exponentially since 2016.’’
The show in Collingswood marks the first time B. Proud has shown both projects side-by-side. “I had a chance, and I took it and the response has been powerful.’’
She recalls a guest at the opening reception who remarked on “how edgy’’ the show seemed for the art center, but also that it was “so amazing, so powerful.’’
“And she started to cry,’’ B. Proud recalled. “If I can reach just one person, then I’ve done my job. It’s the power of one. If I can change one person’s mind, it’s a matter of education and then understanding and acceptance will follow. But it’s only from learning from someone’s story and getting to know them that you can say, they’re just like me.’’
The South Jersey show is only the second time “Transcending Love’’ has been shown to the public. It was on view at Stonewall National Museum in Fort Lauderdale when COVID struck, and has been in boxes in the artist’s home ever since.
But many more people will soon see portraits from the series. B. Proud has pieces in eight or nine exhibitions this summer. She’s also the recipient of a masters fellowship grant from the state of Delaware, and she will have four works on view at the Biggs Museum in Dover next month.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art purchased two portraits from “Transcending Love.’’
“That really makes me happy because I know the work will be in a major institution and the community will be represented there.’’
She recalled an evening eating dinner in a Kentucky bar.
“I try, wherever I am, to have the conversations because having the conversation is the way forward,’’ she said. “I have pictures with me, and I show them what I’m doing, and they start to ask questions. I show them what they haven’t seen before. One man said, ‘I guess we learned something, didn’t we?’
“I cracked open the door a little, but it can be dangerous.’’
“ … I try to follow the African principal of Ubuntu, a basic humanity to all,’’ she continues. “I can’t be successful unless you are successful, I am because we are, and if you are not successful then I fail. I have to work together to be sure you are thriving as well, and then the world lifts up. If people would just try to do that, to embrace other people then we wouldn’t have the hatred that runs rampant today.’’
“Transcending Love’’ and “Say Their Names,’’ exhibits by B. Proud are on view in the Loft Gallery, Perkins Center for the Arts, 30 Irvin Ave., Collingswood, New Jersey, through June 30. Visit perkinsarts.org .
B. Proud will be part of the Delaware Division of the Arts Award Winners XXIII exhibit, July 13 to Sept. 24 at the Biggs Museum, 406 Federal St., Dover. biggsmuseum.org/exhibitions/
B. Proud websites: bproudphoto.com/ and transcendinglove.org/
