At the bustling Jamaica Plain tapas restaurant, record store, and bookshop Tres Gatos, photographer Leah Eve Corbett’s exhibition Nonbinary presents multi-dimensional images of nonbinary people at their most vulnerable and most invincible states of being. By juxtaposing highly stylized fashion shoots and intimate portraits of the same subjects, Corbett challenges the idea that the only valid “genderless” presentation is one that relates back to a white masculine aesthetic.
Corbett deliberately places familiar images of the subjects home at the center of each composition to show the individuals in their most unguarded state. In one piece, a model relaxes in bed with a teddy bear, while in another they exhale smoke from a wooden pipe in their kitchen. Framing these vignettes are distorted versions of the models from more formal fashion shoots, which simultaneously provides the viewer with two contrasting perceptions of each model. These distortions vary within each composition. While some pieces feature multiple overlapping versions of the same photo, others take on a filter to make the image resemble scenes off a damaged VHS tape. All the compositions evoke a sense of duality in the models’ presentation – one that is real and one that is artificial.
Phil Zminda 