Chelsea Zahn has learned about herself and her gender presentation just by discussing and supporting the process her roommate has gone through.
“She’s a really authentic person, which I can really appreciate and understand,” Zahn says.
When Zahn, 22, of Sheraden, met photographer Allie Wynands, the thought of planning a project to tell other stories of androgyny and gender became a reality.
“It’s something that’s close to my heart,” says Wynands, 23, of Highland Park. “It’s a term that people have gotten more familiar with in the last few years.”
Beyond highly stylized representations of celebrities like David Bowie or Tilda Swinton, the pair put out a call online for androgynous models in hopes that they could show real human beings in their everyday lives.
“My kind of photography is very humanistic, emotive and real,” says Wynands, a recent Point Park University graduate with a degree in photojournalism. “It’s how they live their lives and it’s how they’re comfortable and that’s what we want to portray.”
Within a few days, they had about 20 people interested in participating with four shoots completed in the first weekend.
Among the first models was Zahn’s roommate and inspiration, Jennifer Hoffman.
Originally from northern Detroit, Hoffman has lived in Pittsburgh for about six years after completing graduate school and playing for the Pittsburgh Passion. Now, she is a fitness instructor and works for UPMC-Mercy’s behavioral health department.
“For me, it’s about being open and expressing the parts of me that I’m comfortable with,” says Hoffman.
Gender presentation can be set apart from sexual orientation, she says. Straight men and women can present as androgynous, just as lesbians can present as femme, butch or inbetween.
Challenging those gendered representations through clothes, makeup and hairstyles also doesn’t mean someone who identifies as androgynous is transgender, Hoffman says.
“I enjoy being a female,” she says. “I don’t need to be a man with a woman, I want to be a woman with a woman.”
Zahn says the project, which she hopes to launch in early July, will also include video profiles of each model to help connect viewers to their subjects.
“I hope when people see this they can relate and it helps them identify with who they really are,” she says.
Wynands says that she is also learning while working on the project, like hearing one person say that wearing a dress was considered punishment when growing up.
“We get to learn and educate while we’re doing it; it’s a learning process for sure,” she says.
Hoffman says she is impressed that her friends want to do something like this, but hopes that it can be meaningful for those that see it.
“I’m comfortable with who I am, it’s just hard to believe other people would want to photograph who I am,” she says. “We’re here not for ourselves, we’re here for other people and that’s what’s meaningful to me.”
Wynands and Zahn both agreed that they hope the project can inspire other people to be comfortable with who they are in order to be confident, passionate and authentic.
Hoffman says being true to yourself is what allows you to grow as a person.
“Your imperfections make you perfect, that’s what makes you beautiful and that’s what makes you loved,” Hoffman says.
The project is titled “Androgynous Pittsburgh” and these photos are from the series“Genderfull.” To participate in the photo project, email photographer Allie Wynands at ahwynands@gmail.com.