Before the Name #2

Introdution

At the beginning of 2026, I met two new friends in Thailand and invited them to spend an afternoon together. One of them is a transgender man.

When I started taking photographs, I realized that I had always been used to seeing people through gender first, and then deciding how to understand their bodies. So I tried to let go of this way of looking. Through leaning against each other, gazing, and touching, I wanted the body to return to intimacy itself—to a process of trust and companionship, rather than becoming a way to judge someone’s gender.

What moved me that afternoon was their individual presence and the natural relationship between them. Perhaps true freedom does not mean leaving gender behind, but being able to be loved and understood freely within any gender.

Comment From the Judge :
Victoria Hsu

With an extremely gentle visual language, this work captures a touching moment between a transgender man and a cisgender man embracing each other. The images return to the simplest forms of human connection: touch, gaze, and trust.

Starting from the artist’s own habit of “dividing people by gender before understanding their bodies,” the work ultimately makes a profound shift in perspective through observing the intimate relationship between the two people.

This is more than a visual record. It is also a release from conventional ideas about the body and love. The work reminds us that gender should not be the standard by which we define or judge a body. Only when living bodies are no longer restricted by gender stereotypes, and can return to intimacy and companionship, can love flow freely.

The work is emotionally delicate and thoughtful, and deeply moving.