What makes a man a man, and a woman a woman? Are there people who are neither male nor female – or even both? Nothing about gender identity is fixed. Its development is often a fluid process, changing throughout a lifetime. As a result, it is always highly subjective, each person perceiving and presenting their identity in their own individual way. Gender as a Spectrum is a series of portraits of people who have resisted typical gender norms – by questioning them, breaking through them, or turning them inside-out. Photographer Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert spoke to James Egan about his book and the process of creating it.
So first off Joseph, tell us a little about yourself and your previous work.
People would say I am a photographer. But when I moved to Berlin six years ago, I just started taking photos at parties and after-hours events with my disposable camera. Just to keep the memories. Now we have Instagram and I do that with my SmartPhone. Even though I’m not hanging around at after-hours that much anymore!
I wanted to study art the University of Arts but I didn’t get a place, so I applied for the photography school and from there on I got really into it. I used a better camera and photographed my friends and people I met. I worked for magazine and put together some art/photo exhibitions, first in Berlin and then travelling around Europe in different cities. After I did my exams at photography school, I got into art university right away, so currently I am officially an art student. I don’t consider myself a photographer really, more someone who works with the medium of photography as a way to express myself. But I don’t really give a shit about labels. How others see my profession is up to them.
Your new book, Gender As a Spectrum, what inspired this?
As a queer person, I always was questioning what made me different from others; man, woman, gay, straight etc. What defines a person and who is the really “me“ or “you“, independent from the heteronormative stereotypes that are still stuck in society’s consciousness. What do I want? How do I see myself without being influenced by how people think i have to be? The worst thing in life you can do is to lie to yourself. Since I have lived in Berlin, I have met so many great personalities who were questioning themselves the same way, both people who found their own answers or are still looking. I wanted to capture this. The whole book is portraits of different personalities. Some people think “oh yeah, this gender stuff, I don’t understand, I don’t have anything to do with it“, which is stupid since every person on this planet has a gender identity. But this is not separated just as man and woman, it’s your own identity. Your dick doesn’t make you a man nor does a vagina makes you a woman. Gender identity comes from the inside and with this book, I wanted to give this message a face with the help of many individuals.
Can you describe what it is that fascinates you about gender?
Gender has no limits. I have a great fear of limiting myself. I don’t wanna end up living my life only as a ‘man’. I love my cock but I love myself more and I don’t define myself in sex or gender categories, nor do I wanna define others. It’s hard sometimes to break stereotypes since we have language barriers, but we are getting there.
What made you decide to self-publish the book?
There’s not much difference in working with a publisher or self-publishing. Most of the press I do by myself and I have to pay all the printing costs. The only thing the publisher does is handling the marketing, so I wanted to try to do my first book by myself. It was also a personal decision. It’s my baby, so I didn’t want the name of a publisher on the cover: just mine and my co-author Kaey’s. The book has a strong message and I wanted to let it stand for itself. It’s supposed to be independent.
Where did you find the subjects for the portraits? How did you get into contact with them?
Kaey, my co-author, introduced me to many of her friends and when I started travelling, social media helped me a lot. We live in a queer bubble, but it’s a big one when we use the Internet the right way! I’m happy I had the chance to meet such interesting personalities, get to know them and create something together.
What were you looking for with each person you shot? What draws you to someone to shoot with them?
We just started with people we know. There wasn’t really a concept at the beginning. We were just looking for people who live their lives as they want to, independent from the biological sex they are born with. I didn’t want to do a lexicon of gender (as if that would even be possible). My book is collection of portraits of people.
You worked closely with another artist named Kaey; tell us about her.
The first time I met Kaey was in the most popular queer club in Berlin called SCHWUZ. I told her she reminded me of my mother, which I meant in a good way, but she was pretty pissed about it since apparently a lot of guys have said the same to her. I apologized the next day and we got to know each other. She knew about my work and started to hire me for portrait jobs for the queer city magazine Siegessäule, where she does the art direction. In addition to that, she does a lot of different stuff. She’s mostly known as a singer and stage performer.
What was Kaey’s role in creating the book?
Kaey was doing the interviews and text editing. Since she is a trans woman herself and because of her profession as a writer and art director, she was the right person to work with on this book. When I started doing the first portraits for “Gender as a Spectrum“ I didn’t really know anything. I knew there was more but couldn’t name it. Kaey helped to understand what we were actually doing and why it is so important.
The book is in both German and English, is this correct?
Yes! It was important to me that the book would be also internationally available. So we decided to put an English translation in the back of the book. I must say the text work was the most annoying part. Even after 10 people read the book to check if everything was correct, we still found spelling mistakes.
Where can we obtain the book?
You can order it via [email protected] but be quick, as it’s a limited edition of 1000!
Any upcoming projects that readers of the book may also find of interest?
I am opening my own gallery in November in the middle of Berlin (Mitte). It’s supposed to be a playground for creative workers in different fields. I wanna do more books and magazines and have exhibitions and launch parties. I have already found a great group of people I am working with, so this is going to be something exciting. Also I just finished my second book called “DARLINGS!“ which will be published by Bruno Gmünder in September. It’s like a 90’s-style teenage diary with a lot of selfies, ex-lovers, friends and my regular work from the last few years. You can even spot my cock somewhere in it. Not that this would be something special but this is my diary, and I just love nice dickpics.
