People Like Us is a collaborative photography project exploring trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming identities and experience.
We are currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter to produce our highly anticipated photobook - backing it will act as a pre-sale to secure your copy of the book along with other fantastic rewards you can pledge for: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hollyrevell/people-like-us
Shot over 6 years, the project includes over 50 people from a rich variety of backgrounds & gender diversity.
Visibility is important, to be seen and to be able to see others like you is affirming and can be life changing. People Like Us has a positive outlook, showing off the rich gender diversity that exists within our community, portraying feelings of freedom, hope, limitlessness and joy.
“I only started using the term non-binary a few years ago, after top surgery. Kate Bornstein calls gender a playground. I love this. Now my body balances. Like a see-saw. I think these terms - masculine / feminine - are up for grabs. I feel more playful defining as non-binary. Feels calming. Clear. Hopeful even. I wish this term had been available when I was growing up. It would have saved me a lot of pain and misunderstanding. Now, I can step into it. Play a little. Thanks to all the trans & NB people that helped me on this path in, and, around surgery”. Libro 2020
“ I spent years hearing taping and binding advice from fellow Drag Artists/Trans Folk/even owners of taping companies telling me I must be/must’ve been doing something wrong. All those blisters weren’t normal. The open skin wounds, bloody aftermath, and constant pain meant, to you, I wasn’t taping correctly. The real T is that you’d fetishise the result without acknowledging the gruesome steps it took to achieve. I taped my dysphoria like these nipples had to be isolated in quarantine under my armpits. You told me I was blessed to have a small chest. You told me taping probably wasn’t that deep. Truth is, my chest size was a D cup. I just forever fooled you to believe they were smaller. I had to make them smaller.” Chiyo 2020
“I still think about my body hair. When I was invited into this photography project, one of the ideas was to play with the dark coarse body hair that covers me. Instead, I brought my dainty gold trimming scissors, sharing the practices that come with a body like mine, exposing the assumptions of a body like mine. I don’t like my hair. I tolerate it and the methods I use to reduce, remove and maintain it. Especially the hair that sits on my upper lip and between my brows I have tolerated (read: tortured) since girlhood. But there’s something about how I can focus on each individual black hair, and the attention to detail I give now that I can look at my body this closely, that does make it feel okay. It turns it into a ritual that’s mine.” Sabah 2019
"I have been trying out binding recently as a solution to the problem of what on earth to wear if not a bra. Bras are the only remnant of 'women's' clothes that I wear now, besides a floaty kaftan on holiday :). My preference would be to always go braless and just wear a vest or something but there are plenty of situations where that doesn't cut it, so it'd be good to be able to find something that does the job of keeping things in their place that also fits comfortably with my gender expression. Binding as a fat person has some challenges, and I have not quite yet found what works for me. I have been sort of enjoying the experimentation and glad that as a by-product of my many failures I have been able to send a steady stream of binders to Mermaids for them to pass on to trans youngsters struggling without much support." Kay 2020
“I’m quite late ‘coming out’ but I don’t live with regret as my back story means I’m the proud parent of three children and now even one grandchild! I’m proud of the scars I carry from carrying my children.” Leo SW 2022
