Lotus (Signed)

Lotus is a document of transgender people in Thailand, capturing the day-to-day lives women at different stages of transitioning and living in a variety of circumstances, including performers and sex workers. The book, a reproduction of a dummy made in 2011, offers an intimate portrait of these women as they attend hospital appointments for gender reassignment surgery, interact with tourists, pose for photographs or simply spend a day at the park. All in Pinckers unmistakable cinematic style.

They say: In the series Lotus, Max Pinckers and Quinten De Bruyn document the world of transgender people in Thailand. The gender crisis that the so-called ladyboys face is transformed into a visual metaphor about the identity crisis that contemporary documentary photography currently encounters, when it dares to reflect upon itself critically, and confront its paradoxes.

The documentary photographer that captures reality as 'a fly on the wall' can’t deny his or her directive and manipulative role any longer. The anonymity, the seeming absence, is merely a pose. The tableaux that the photographer captures are not lies, but enfold themselves within the studio that he or she creates from reality.

We say: An intimate and important early project by one of our favourite photographers now finally available as a beautiful clothbound book. A definite must-have.

Highlights: During the project, Pinckers gave disposable cameras to some of the women and invited them to take photographs of their every day lives. These are presented in the book as fold-out sections.