ABOUT TRANS PORTRAITS UK
A COMMUNITY PHOTO PROJECT PROMITING VISIBILITY AND EMPOWERMENT
WHAT IS TPUK?
Trans Portraits UK is a visibility and education project which aims to build opportunities and spaces for trans people to create our own media.
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We began life in 2020 as a small community arts project - originally called Bristol Trans Portraits - which provided free photoshoots for trans and non-binary people in Bristol. Photography is still at the heart of what we do, but these days our scope is much broader.
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We want to create opportunities for trans people to tell our own stories, both in images and in writing - providing an empowering experience for everyone who participates, while also reaching out to start conversations with those who have perhaps never met a trans person before.
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In this way, we hope the project will counteract some of the negative media attention currently directed towards trans people.
WHAT WE DO
Our annual magazine is what we spend most of our time working on! Each year we collect stories about trans experiences, focusing on a new theme for every issue. The theme for our 2025 issue is Trans Joy!
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Our instagram feed and website supplement our magazine output; we share parts of our featured stories online, and document trans pride festivals and other events across the country.
We also hosted an exhibition in 2022 at St George's Bristol. As a classical music venue with no prior connection to the trans community, this exhibition gave us the opportunity to reach a wider, primarily cis audience, and start new conversations with them.
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In the future we hope to run events such as photography & writing workshops, and another exhibition - though we're still a way off this goal!
WHO'S INVOLVED?
We have a small team of two to manage the project and run our portrait sessions, but beyond that participation is open to anyone in the UK who is trans or non-binary.​
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Story submissions open twice per year, and we aim to use as many of those submissions as we possibly can. A small number of those who submit stories will be chosen to feature in our magazine and are invited to have their portrait taken.
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Priority is given to those from marginalised or underrepresented backgrounds; 50% of our spaces are reserved for those from the Global Majority, and we also prioritise disabled folks and those over the age of 40.
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In the future we hope to build a small team of contributors for our magazine, to commission articles from on an ad-hoc basis.
OUR TEAM
NICKY EBBAGE (THEY/THEM)
PROJECT DIRECTOR & PHOTOGRAPHER
Nicky is a Chesterfield-born, Bristol-based freelance event photographer. Their work centres community, affordability and inclusivity; they work with local communities/groups in and around Bristol, and with the wider LGBTQ community as a whole. Making photography more accessible is hugely important to Nicky, and to that end they run reduced rate pricing for anyone who needs it, aim to work with diverse groups of people, and take a consent-based approach to photo sharing.
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Since coming out as trans all the way back in 2013, Nicky has been consistently involved with activism and education work, delivering trans awareness workshops on several occasions both at university and in the workplace. They founded TPUK in July 2020, recognising that they could use their skillset as a photographer to counteract negative media portrayals of trans people.
MADELEINE COWARD (SHE/HER)
FORMER PARTICIPANT
Bio coming soon!
PRESS
Royal Photographic Society Spotlight March 2022
Royal Photographic Society Magazine, March-April 2022, Vol 162/No 2
West Country Life Magazine, Saturday 18 June 2022