'Androgyny With Sid': An Indian Photo Series Explores Gender Identity

Sexual identity has been making headlines in good news, for a change, with same-sex marriage being legalised in the United States. While this has not had much of an impact on policies on sexual identity closer home (besides perhaps the attention the Facebook rainbow filter has been getting) we do believe that the conversation surrounding this ambivalent topic has been growing, with the concept manifesting itself in our contemporary culture. Bangalore-based photographer Sam Mohan’s ‘Androgyny With SID’ is one such example of a photo story that is discussing an issue that has been swept under the carpet for far too long in our country.  

Conceptualised and realised in 2009, the subject of this shoot is Sid, Sam’s make-up artist and a good friend too. ”The idea of androgyny has intrigued me for many years,” Sam says. “I believe that gender identity is centric to an individual, and my observation led me to believe that every individual has a bit of both (man/woman) in them. Sid is androgynous and that makes him unique; I wanted to capture his uniqueness. Thereafter, Sid and I decided to get everything set up, from Sid’s wardrobe to the studio, and that’s how it all came together.”

Sid and Sam have been working together for almost a decade and hence, have become good friends too, explains Sam. “We share a great camaraderie,” he continues. “When I first expressed my desire to make images of him in the studio, he was ecstatic. He was given control over his make up, hair & styling and I took up the art direction and photography aspects.”

When asked about the multiple exposed images in the series, he shares, “Around that time I was experimenting with multiple exposures. I was thinking how everyone has multiple layers of emotions bottled inside them. Hence, I decided to showcase  internal conflicts and fantasies using this method.”

As for the styling credit, with the bold colours and a slight nod towards surrealism, Sam accords it solely to Sid. “I asked him to go beyond the normal and give me eccentric style and make up. The idea always bordered around the surreal...androgyny is surreal. Is it not?”

Winding up, we cut to the crux of it: what is the sort of conversation or change that Sam hopes this series will initiate? “To look at androgyny as an attitude and celebrate it,” he says. “To not look at it as a condition. In fact, I have just finished working on another project with Sid which you can view on my website or Behance page. This project was realized in 2012. This tackles issues like the society’s love for materialism/ celebrities/pseudo make-believe world of media. Sid’s penchant for high fashion Louis Vuitton bags and his love for Lady Gaga to his DKNY perfume, Jimmy Choo heels - these all represent those issues......I wanted to capture it all in this series.”

“We are presently working on something called androgynous landscapes,” he wraps up, leaving us with a lot of pictures to ponder over, and even more to think about.