Behind the Lens: Laurence Philomene
April 19th, 2022
Interview by Kate Neave @katylovesart
Continuing our look behind the lens, up-and-coming artist Laurence Philomene speaks to writer Kate Neave about the stories behind 5 key images from their photographic practice.
Laurence Philomene and I first connected back in 2015, when their art collective The Coven captured my attention with its fearless and outspoken challenges to gender stereotypes. Since then, Laurence’s photography practice has reached new heights. Over the years they’ve built a loyal community of fans who sign up to their Patreon receiving regular snail mail, test prints and merch treats in return for their support. Laurence’s empowering imagery continues to define identity beyond binaries but now they’ve turned their lens inwards to capture their own personal journey.
April sees the launch of Puberty, a 288 page photographic memoir published by Yoffy Press. Puberty is a raw and saturated, it captures the mundane and occasionally the surreal. It documents the detail of Laurence’s journey through HRT (Hormonal Replacement Therapy) as a non-binary person taking testosterone. Laurence documents the subtle physical changes to their body and celebrates transition as a process without a fixed end goal. For this feature, Laurence guides us through 5 images from Puberty that speak their truth, unfiltered by other peoples’ perspectives.
1) Paint Me Like one of Your Pre-Raphaelite Boy-Girls, 2019
This image is from February 2019, early on in the project. It is a self-portrait on my couch and I took it right after getting out of the bath. Before this image I had been shooting mostly with daylight and I wanted to explore taking photos later in the day. So this was my first experiment with the environmental lighting at night in my apartment. It’s dark and the images is lit only by my computer screen and a candle placed on a chair that makes a shadow across my face. It’s a long exposure which I held for four seconds which was really hard.
I’m really happy with this photograph and people really resonate with it. It has a lot of art history references. I was looking a lot at reclining nudes. It talks about what kind of bodies are represented. When you look at it you can see that I’m just a white cis woman which is not that groundbreaking but to truly understand the image you have to dig a little deeper.
“When you look at it you can see that I’m just a white cis woman which is not that groundbreaking but to truly understand the image you have to dig a little deeper.”
2) Bedside Table, 2019
This is a still life of my bedside table taken at around the same time as Paint Me Like one of Your Pre-Raphaelite Boy-Girls was taken. I was looking a lot at images of domesticity, and thinking about self-care and I feel like this picture feels very revealing to me and one of the most vulnerable images in the project as a whole.
It’s talking about sexuality and there’s weed and there’s religion. There’s a lot going on in this image and I appreciate that it’s a still life but I also think it works as a really intimate self-portrait. I love the colours in it–the bright orange, the bright blue and the bright pink.
The Puberty project is about wanting to demystify the process of HRT and humanise it and so a big part of it is seeing the beauty in the mundane and inviting other people to do the same in their own life.
3) Pastel Testosterone, 2020
This image was shot in the winter of 2020. It’s a portrait of my hand holding my bi-weekly testosterone injection on my bed. I wanted to show a different side of hormonal replacement therapy. I like the idea of showing testosterone as something that can be soft as it’s not often represented that way.
I’m taking an experience which is thought of as really masculine and looking at the feminine aspects of it, embracing my femininity in the process. For me, taking HRT is an act of self-care and this image really shows that it’s part of my daily life. I think the setting of the bed and Care Bear helps bring out that meaning.
4) Pastel Castle, 2020
This is an image I shot in Mexico when I was on vacation with my partner and my best friend right before the pandemic hit. We were at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe which is a huge religious site in Mexico City on top of a hill. From the observatory I could see this pastel building in the distance. I thought it looked so interesting so we walked around for hours to find it.
“ I love colour in general. It adds another layer of language in photography that can communicate a lot of emotions.”
We discovered it’s actually a daycare centre and if you look really closely there’s small people climbing on it but I still really love the photo. I’m obsessed with dolls houses and this was like a real life version of that.
I saw a lot of meaning in the fact that we had such a nice excursion to Mexico and then the building I photographed was sitting behind barbed wire. I really like to take images of buildings that I see around my daily life to incorporate them into the Puberty project to give a sense of an imaginary space.
Certain colours in this image are very soothing and calming and others, like those I use in the self-portrait, are more vibrant. I love colour in general. It adds another layer of language in photography that can communicate a lot of emotions. Everyone has their own association with what colours will mean to them so everyone will interpret the colours differently.
5) Rococo Hair, 2022
This image is more recent. It’s from February 2022. It’s a bit different from the rest of the images as it’s a staged studio image but that is still a part of my practice so I wanted to include that.
This image is shot in my studio with a mix of daylight and studio light. I made it with my collaborator Jess Cohen who is a hair and make-up artist. We do creative images together about once a year and I just say to her you can use me as a blank canvas and just have fun.
She had this picture in her head that she had imagined. She placed all the elements in my hair and it was a bit of a different experience because I was just standing there and I couldn’t move. I was directing an assistant to light the photo and telling them how to frame it.
The image reminds me of Spring. We had a really long winter here in Montreal. It’s still snowing today so this is the energy that I want to bring out right now.
“I just say to her you can use me as a blank canvas and just have fun.”
About Laurence Philomene
Laurence Philomene is a non-binary artist from Montreal who creates colourful photographs informed by their lived experiences as a chronically ill transgender person. Their practice celebrates trans existence and studies identity as a space in constant flux via highly-saturated, cinematic, and vulnerable images.
Gaining an interest in image-making in their teenage years, Laurence has since used photography as space to both experiment with, and document identity as it comes to be expressed through gender. Using photography as a process of mutual [and self] care, their work aims to humanise identities that have been historically marginalised, and act as a love letter to their community.