Best GLBT Non-Fiction Book of 2012 by the Independent Publisher Book Awards.
Known for her compassionate and revealing photographic images of underground subcultures, documentary photographer Jana Marcus brings to book format her award-winning work, Transfigurations, a startling and ground-breaking photographic series on the transgender community. Transfigurations explores transsexuals and their notions of masculinity and femininity as they change gender identities. Discovering that gender is both real and illusory, natural and constructed, Marcus s photographs shed light on the transformation from one sex/gender to another. The series also explores the importance of the body to gender identity as well as the effects of transformative practices on the body, creating a reality beyond ordinary experience.
Transfigurations is a bold, gutsy visual feast not just for the eyes, but for the heart and soul. In her courageous endeavor to explore gender, Jana Marcus takes us along a hypnotic ride that invites us to question everything we think we might know about man, woman and the typically uncharted waters in between. Stunning! --Greg Archer, San Francisco Examiner --Greg Archer, San Francisco Examiner
Jana Marcus's Transfigurations is revelatory. A series of larger-than-life-size black and white portraits that perhaps as a function of a wide-open camera lens or the fine quality of printing, but more likely because the eye of the photographer has called forth a deep veracity from the subjects make available the human essence --Maureen Davidson, Santa Cruz Weekly --Maureen Davidson, Santa Cruz Weekly
This is powerful stuff! Transfigurations is deeply moving. Marcus captures the dignity of people with clarity and honesty, calling forth the hope that many closed minds may be opened and many faint hearts be mended. --Dennis J. Dunleavy, Ph.D. Department of Communication Southern Oregon University --Dennis J. Dunleavy, Ph.D. Department of Communication Southern Oregon University
Jana Marcus has been creating award-winning documentary photography for over 20 years. She is a professional photographer in the California Bay Area focusing on the documentary, editorial and performing arts genres. Her work has been exhibited across the United States and extensively published in newspapers and magazines. Jana was recently named one of 50 Exceptional International Photographers by Exposure of New York. Transfigurations has won many prestigious photography awards including the Best Photos of The Year in both 2004 and 2005 by Photo District News of New York. Jana s first book, In The Shadow of the Vampire: Reflections From The World Of Anne Rice, was published by Thunder s Mouth Press of New York.
