/SELF PORTRAITS: A RECKONING/ 🇧🇷 nos comentários Hi. I am a Brazilian non-binary photographer and the only soul behind this account. I see unconditional beauty in every single queer person I ever photograph and with QueerGarden I vowed to celebrate as many of them in all their power and joy, at the best of my abilities. Yet, I was never able to face my own camera and treat myself with the same admiration and compassion that I do my models. These 5 images are a reckoning of this and a present to myself. /A NECESSARY REMINDER/ It's taken me a long time to do this. As a photographer, I observe queer people's bodies all the time, so it is challenging not to compare myself. I kept waiting for my body to be "ready". Having top surgery was surely a massive one, but there always seemed to be more to be done before I could look at myself: "Maybe when I am fitter", "Too much hip dysphoria", "Are my scars too unsymmetric?", "Do my nipples look shapeless?", "Am I androgynous enough?", "Is my chest perfect enough for an official reveal?". Ugh. It has been so liberating to let that all go and take these pictures for me and no one else. I finally see myself with the same eyes as I see every the beautiful humans I have photographed. And I have fallen in love. My body will keep changing, but let these be a necessary reminder to stop and celebrate a long journey survived, with the courage and endurance only trans people know - and are forced to have. I share these with you because we need as many visible trans bodies out there seen in pride, radical acceptance and beauty. /ON YOUR SHOULDERS/ An immeasurable thank you to my surgeon @mastectomia_masculinizadora for brilliantly bringing to reality the vision I have always dreamed for my body, to @hannahparshons for being there for me in every pillow adjusted and the immense and all surrounding love. To @nikias_fittotransform for redefining the possibilities of my not-on-T body, to all of you who shared and donated to my fund. Thank you to the trans community I am lucky to be surrounded by and to the trailblazers that came before us and got us here, specially trans black women. Lots of love, QG.