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Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits
The idea of gender is no long as fixed as it once was: Tootsie, La Cage aux Folles, and Milton Berle saw to that. But none of this has prepared us for Loren Cameron's amazing portraits of transsexuals. Beautifully reproduced and complemented with notes and short essays, these portraits of women who are now men may startle, but they will also make you marvel at the genuine complexities of life, sex, and desire. Body Alchemy might have been a curiosity, like Diane Arbus's photographs of those outside the physical and cultural mainstream, but Cameron's art is so empathetic, so precise, that we are left in awe and with a new understanding of the realities of being human.
100 pages, Paperback
First published October 16, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
July 25, 2009
The language Loren Cameron was using when this came out feels very, very dated right now, to the point that you'd probably call somebody out and have a confrontation if they used it in 2009. But, I mean, instead of just being kind of a faded photograph or whatever, that actually throws into relief what an intense time the nineties were to be a trans man: how few your role models were, how uncharted the life in front of you looked, how free and constrained you were, socially, at the same time.
Plus, there's no way to deny the defiant charge running through all these photos. Man. Recommended.
Plus, there's no way to deny the defiant charge running through all these photos. Man. Recommended.
September 17, 2012
The strengths of this 1996 book are its photos of female-to-male transsexuals. The head shots and nude full-body self-portraits (artistic rather than prurient) of author/photographer Loren Cameron segue into a section of head shots and bios of other trans males, covering a range of ages. One short section has photos showing the aftermath of top surgery and bottom surgery (metoidioplasty and phalloplasty). For me, the most interesting section showcases photos taken before and after transitioning--the effects of testosterone therapy are pretty amazing. This book is a fascinating window on some very interesting men who happened to be born women.
September 28, 2015
removed a star b/c i recall finding this book fatphobic by omission (it's been quite a while, so i'm not 100% on my memory).
January 19, 2023
A very beautiful book.
February 12, 2020
This is an historically and artistically important book into lives that until quite recently were invisible to the cishetero world. For myself, as a transmasculine person, it is at once deeply triggering and empowering. Hearing and especially seeing trans men going through the same struggles I have prior to, during, and after transition opens a sense of community and continuity that is lacking in my daily life as someone living in a rural area.
A note for readers, particularly trans folk: this book was published in 1996, & depicts the lives of trans men from the 1950s up until that time. Some of the language used--particularly the difference between transsexual and transgender--has evolved since then. The surgical options have likewise evolved, and a reader considering bottom surgery especially should not be daunted solely by the discomfort expressed by certain subjects here.
A note for readers, particularly trans folk: this book was published in 1996, & depicts the lives of trans men from the 1950s up until that time. Some of the language used--particularly the difference between transsexual and transgender--has evolved since then. The surgical options have likewise evolved, and a reader considering bottom surgery especially should not be daunted solely by the discomfort expressed by certain subjects here.
March 17, 2008
This book is groundbreaking for its depection of trans mens bodies long before anyone else had a book like this out there. Unfortunatly it is not the best. The photography is fairly straight forward, its organization is not very interesting, only its subject hold any interest. The genital shots are useful in an instructive manner, but fall flat as a creative work, and borrow far to much from a medicalized model that are the only previous documentation of trans mens bodies. Loren is a better speaker and educator on trans masculine experience than he is a photographer. This comes no where near the caliber of Sublime Mutations by Del Lagrace Volcano. This review does not speak for Lorens later work, just what is in this book.
March 1, 2014
awesome!
April 22, 2026
I'm like four books deep in a backlog (well four including when I was reading this) -- nice to finish something!
The book is brilliant -- like I feel like there's this narrative in constant circulation: "you have to go back to read the old stuff, which is often problematic, but y'know you have to read it. because history." Going back, reading that old stuff (and what a tr*nsg*nder timeline to call a book from 1996 the "old stuff") I am so often surprised at how good it is. This is not to say it approaches things as they are approached now, which is often a good thing -- so often the sorts of problems contemporary publications are dealing with, and often making a big show of dealing with, are like.... not there. It's true that sometimes older stuff is bad (but also so much of contemporary stuff is bad...), but also so often old stuff (esp about g*nder and s*xual*ty) feels like it just walks through walls, though it's probably more accurate to say that those constructions of walls just didn't exist in certain ways.
All the narrativizing aside, it's just like it's **good**. This book is absolutely amazing. It gives me the vibe of pre-internet (or perhaps pre-w*de circulation) q*e*r doc films that like -- people just were trying to say their truth, which was not necessarily or even trying to be The Truth, but like -- they often got to it and in ways that simply have rarely been matched even with the increased "v*s*b*l*ty" and "acc*pt*nce" today. Without the prevailing force of guiding, acceptable narratives people had to say their own piece in their own way and like -- it's often so much more interesting, nuanced, and (imo) true than the sort of evacuated rights-based c*t*zen discourse we get today as an almost constant frame.
Anyway I don't know what's going on with the asterisks here in my review, but like yeah this book is brilliant. Like bracket everything it's so amazing.
(It's also back when tr*ns rights were a working class issue (Leslie Feinberg vibes) instead of a professionalized human rights media representation issue, which is always a much better vibe.)
The book is brilliant -- like I feel like there's this narrative in constant circulation: "you have to go back to read the old stuff, which is often problematic, but y'know you have to read it. because history." Going back, reading that old stuff (and what a tr*nsg*nder timeline to call a book from 1996 the "old stuff") I am so often surprised at how good it is. This is not to say it approaches things as they are approached now, which is often a good thing -- so often the sorts of problems contemporary publications are dealing with, and often making a big show of dealing with, are like.... not there. It's true that sometimes older stuff is bad (but also so much of contemporary stuff is bad...), but also so often old stuff (esp about g*nder and s*xual*ty) feels like it just walks through walls, though it's probably more accurate to say that those constructions of walls just didn't exist in certain ways.
All the narrativizing aside, it's just like it's **good**. This book is absolutely amazing. It gives me the vibe of pre-internet (or perhaps pre-w*de circulation) q*e*r doc films that like -- people just were trying to say their truth, which was not necessarily or even trying to be The Truth, but like -- they often got to it and in ways that simply have rarely been matched even with the increased "v*s*b*l*ty" and "acc*pt*nce" today. Without the prevailing force of guiding, acceptable narratives people had to say their own piece in their own way and like -- it's often so much more interesting, nuanced, and (imo) true than the sort of evacuated rights-based c*t*zen discourse we get today as an almost constant frame.
Anyway I don't know what's going on with the asterisks here in my review, but like yeah this book is brilliant. Like bracket everything it's so amazing.
(It's also back when tr*ns rights were a working class issue (Leslie Feinberg vibes) instead of a professionalized human rights media representation issue, which is always a much better vibe.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 24, 2023
After reading the reviews, I have to laugh at all of the youngins and their hypercritical responses---yet, none indicate that they themselves are photographers, writers, or even transgender, which demonstrates a lack of knowledge about our history and life before the internet. I'm a transman who medically transitioned during the 1980s and one of the transelder transmen in San Francisco. Rex (Loren Cameron) was a reserved, deep thinking, and creative man. His photography of transmen demonstrates where we were at in the 1990s before the internet. Dr. Michael Broenstein performed Rex's chest surgery and mine as well. We were numbers 2 and 3 at the beginning of Brownstein's "male chest reconstruction" pursuits. One of the most groundbreaking decisions that Rex had with this book was to show before and after photos of transmen. Many notable transmen were photographed for this project of before and after such as Jamison Green, PhD. Some of us weren't ready yet to offer up our readily identifiable likenesses in photos that announced we were transsexuals; I passed as I had a wife and child so I had to consider their safety. I'm grateful that Rex decided to pursue his chronicling of our images and I proudly keep a personal signed copy of it on my bookshelf to show others what it was like before anyone knew that transmen existed. We were all sorry to learn of Rex's passing in November 2022; he had suffered from heart failure for at least 5 years.
Read
November 27, 2023Cameron Loren the man that you are….
This was fascinating to flip through in 2023. The autobiographical text segments were a bit messy & confusing at times. Also, some of the staged photos were so on-the-nose that I had to laugh. But it’s all forgivable. At the end of the day, this was meant to be a documentation of humanity. Nothing more, nothing less.
With that said- Cameron is at his best when he’s in front of the camera, simply showing off. Whether he’s flexing naked or smizing in a suit, his sexuality comes through really beautifully in these photos. I’ll admit that I’m also a bit biased in this regard, however…
Last but not least: I was particularly engrossed (and moved) by Cameron’s and Kayt’s reflections on their relationship. They provide some bittersweet insights into early T4T dynamics after the proliferation of GAC- many of which echo with truth today.
“We are so much alike that it’s painful when we are different.”
This was fascinating to flip through in 2023. The autobiographical text segments were a bit messy & confusing at times. Also, some of the staged photos were so on-the-nose that I had to laugh. But it’s all forgivable. At the end of the day, this was meant to be a documentation of humanity. Nothing more, nothing less.
With that said- Cameron is at his best when he’s in front of the camera, simply showing off. Whether he’s flexing naked or smizing in a suit, his sexuality comes through really beautifully in these photos. I’ll admit that I’m also a bit biased in this regard, however…
Last but not least: I was particularly engrossed (and moved) by Cameron’s and Kayt’s reflections on their relationship. They provide some bittersweet insights into early T4T dynamics after the proliferation of GAC- many of which echo with truth today.
“We are so much alike that it’s painful when we are different.”
March 7, 2025
always a pleasure to know more tboy history. and as always i wish i couldve read this back when i was starting, and maybe before. there is really no way to rate a book like this so…5 stars on default and in tboy solidarity or whatever.
January 26, 2019
Powerful and brilliant collection of before and after images with brief poetic interviews and stories from persons who identify as transgender illustrating their transformation.
March 10, 2023
Dated, but still powerful representation.
This one focuses specifically on trans men in the nineties.
This one focuses specifically on trans men in the nineties.
September 8, 2023
the photos of the author and his partner gave me chills like nothing ever before.
January 9, 2024
Read just for research for uni, but man, its soo good. Won't lie, I shed a few tears
April 21, 2024
“I want the world to know the force of their beauty."
How will I ever emotionally recover from this
How will I ever emotionally recover from this
November 25, 2024
Early trans masc photo book and autobiographical story by the late Loren Cameron, possibly the sweetwst body builder ever
July 3, 2025
4 stars because of the trans cop (ew). Otherwise pretty cool for its time.
July 29, 2025
Feeling really lucky I was able to borrow a copy of this, and wish it would get a repress! This is FTM trans-masc history: a small glimpse of the lives of trans men in the last 80s early 90s.
October 28, 2025
so awesome…
April 8, 2025
My dear friend Loren, a master photographer, made me feel loved, appreciated, respected, and seen. This book was a significant source of inspiration and support for many of us in the community. It serves as a reflection of the prevailing cultural climate and the way we were often perceived during that era. However, it is important to acknowledge that his remarkable contributions to our progress and the artistic brilliance of his photographs cannot be overlooked. I deeply miss him.
-dani
-dani
November 26, 2011
I don't see the hype. Seeing that it's out of print now, I pined and waited to get this at the local library.
I was sorely disappointed, it was little more than drivel with pictures, honestly.
For it to be so highly esteemed, I thought there'd be some substance, but really there wasn't.
Get it from a library before actually paying money for it.
I was sorely disappointed, it was little more than drivel with pictures, honestly.
For it to be so highly esteemed, I thought there'd be some substance, but really there wasn't.
Get it from a library before actually paying money for it.
April 1, 2025
A lot of times when I read other trans men’s experiences it feels like for a minute, despite even decades separating us, we are all the same man with the same experience. This is one of those times. The words feel like I might’ve written them. And the portraits are incredibly powerful.
Now if only I could find a physical copy of this book that doesn’t cost three to eight hundred dollars.
Now if only I could find a physical copy of this book that doesn’t cost three to eight hundred dollars.
January 3, 2008
this is an awesome book! i originally bought it for my ftm exboyfriend but kept it in the divorce. loren camerons transformation is incredible. the before and after photos are freaking amazing! everyone should take a look at this book. it takes only a few minutes- and you will be amazed!
July 27, 2009
This is THE book on FTM (female to male) tranformation in photographs. I have met Loren Cameron and he is amazing. The dichotomy between maleness and femaleness in seeing FTM's that chose not to fully have surgery (like Cameron) is very interesting.
May 25, 2010
an interesting collection of portraits. it's definitely dated a bit, but pretty groundbreaking for when it was released. i wish some of the commentary was a little less sexist, but again, peoples ideas have changed a lot since the book was released.
July 17, 2007
Loren Cameron is extremely self-involved, misogynistic and arrogant but, I enjoy the idea of his art/mission.
December 8, 2007
Not a lot of reading, more pictures.
March 31, 2008
I just re-read this (the first time was 6 years ago), and it's an amazing historical document and photographic essay of an ever growing community. Much different for me the second time around...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews