In this series of studio portraits, I started to portrait people of the Paris LGBT community using positive films, like the Velvia or Ektachrome, and developing them with the C-41 process, the so-called Cross Processing method. This process produces shifts in colours like saturations of reds and greens. What interests me and what I found amazingly revealing are the correlations and similarities I found between the Cross-Process method and the cross-gender identities of the people I photograph, between the beauty and extraordinary force that swapping chemical processing produces on a light sensitive, organic support and the beauty, open-minded universe of the cross-gender, cross-dressing/undressing of people who chose to live outside the lines society wants us to stay. All the sessions are held in my studio, the sitters are asked to bring along some of their personal, sacred belongings, their scene costumes or whatever they wish and just play with them. I’m not interested in portrait them in their environment but I rather see them like guests in my own world. At first, they feel scared, naked and bewildered but the use of bulky, heavy cameras force me to slow down and allows them to relax and soon they regain control, stepping back in their safe comfort zone, finally opening up to me, reaching the climax of the session, when I find some sort of connection with them, when they finally understand how I want to portray them and the dialogues become more sincere and revealing.
