Photoshoot with Claudia Charriez

Fonte/Source: The Bilerico Project

Filed by: Jeff Sheng
April 28, 2009 12:30 PM


I have to first apologize for not posting in awhile, especially since some of you have been anxiously waiting on this post for some time already since it involves pictures of the incredibly beautiful model Claudia Charriez.
A little over a month ago, my assistant Kara told me that Claudia Charriez contacted my studio and wanted to do a test shoot with us for her working portfolio.

I was incredibly excited about this and just assumed that Kara, who is also a trans-identified woman of color, used her personal connections to arrange this opportunity.

I found out later however that the two of them didn't know each other at all and had never met, and when I asked Kara if Claudia even knew about her trans-identity, Kara laughed and said, "Probably not."

The photoshoot we did was amazing. Claudia was an unbelievable joy to work with, hitting every pose, look, body gesture, and facial expression that a photographer would want. For those of you who don't know who Claudia is, it's best that you just Google her name for more information, since I don't really want to rehash her experiences on Tyra's America's Next Top Model and Janice Dickenson's Modeling Agency reality shows.

And to be honest, during the entire 3-hour long photoshoot with her, we didn't even mention these events... I personally just got the feeling that she wanted to move on from her reality show life and just make it now as a professional model without having to talk about these past experiences that highlighted and exposed her trans-identity in a very confrontational and unethical way.
The photoshoot did make me think a bit about the idea of when our identities are used to single many of us out, and in many ways, don't we all just want to be treated as who we are, without special consideration to the letters LGBTQI that make up only a portion of our identity? I realized that on the campus where I teach, if my students always referred to me as the gay professor, even if it was done without bad intentions, I would take issue with it.

Similarly, I look at the photos that I took of Claudia recently, and I realize that she is simply stunning as a female model - nothing more needs to really be said about this.
My studio has another photoshoot with her soon so stay posted on those pics.

Again, I apologize for the delay in this post. It took longer than expected in getting these pictures done because we wanted to use Claudia's selection, and the editing process for this took longer than expected. Thanks for being patient!