Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

INTER*me: An Inter-Locution on the Body in Photography

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives

Abstract

Photographer, ‘part time gender terrorist’, and now, as twice-parent (‘Ma-Pa’), Del LaGrace Volcano engages in conversation with friends and fellow gender travelers on herm’s latest photographic series, titled INTER*me. Their ‘inter-locution’ interleaves herm’s most recent images with some of herm’s earlier iconic photographs, as the discussion reflects on various interstices: between the body, aging and cultural ideals of beauty; between self-imaging, community representation, and familial connections; and between the technologies of gender and those of photography. The conversation reveals how the patterns in the INTER*me series interlock with those in Volcano’s oeuvre and ultimately also with the interwoven patterns of birth, life and death.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Volcano uses ‘herm’ as noun and pronoun to self-name, thereby reclaiming from medical and mythical discourse an ambiguity that interrupts gender binaries (see Volcano 2010).

  2. 2.

    Following the use of the asterisk as suffix to make ‘trans*’ a more inclusive term, ‘inter*’ appears here as a multivalent term reflective of its multiform community. In both cases, the new taxonomy seems to displace a diagnosis. The asterisk model is derived from digital language, the file search term on file explorer programs. The asterisk throws up every form or ‘file’ prefixed by what comes before the asterisk. INTER* is also the preferred form first used by German intersex (inter*) activists as a means of delineating sex from sexuality.

  3. 3.

    Gisele Bündchen, the Brazilian supermodel, was to be the flip/feminine side of this project.

Works Cited

  • Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. Trans. Richard Howard. London: Vintage, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blessing, Jennifer. “Introduction.” Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: Gender Performance in Photography. Eds. Jennifer Blessing and Judith Halberstam. New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buse, Peter. “Surely Fades Away: Polaroid Photography and the Contradictions of Cultural Value.” Photographies 1.2 (2008): 221–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Califia, Pat. Macho Sluts: Erotic Fiction. New York: Alyson, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moglen, Helene. “Ageing and Transageing: Transgenerational Hauntings of the Self.” Studies in Gender and Sexuality 9.4 (2008): 297–311.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preciado, Beatriz. “The Intersextional Darkroom.” SEX WORKS. Del LaGrace Volcano. Tübingen: Konkursbuchverlag, 2005. 155–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prosser, Jay. “The Art of Ph/Autography.” Sublime Mutations. Del LaGrace Volcano. Tübingen: Konkursbuchverlag, 2000. 6–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Segal, Lynne. Out of Time: The Pleasures and Perils of Ageing. London: Verso, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smee, Sebastian. “In Striking Photos, John Coplans Shows his Hand.” Boston Globe. Boston Globe, 16 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2014. http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2014/01/16/striking-photos-john-coplans-shows-his-hand/OEqunUUVWjFuPomMtl5hXO/story.html.

  • Sontag, Susan. “The Image World.” On Photography. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steinbock, Eliza. “Generative Negatives: Del LaGrace Volcano’s Herm Body photographs.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1.4 (2014): 539–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Volcano, Del LaGrace. “Hermstory.” The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. Ed. Amelia Jones. London: Routledge, 2010. 27–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. “Statement.” Del LaGrace Volcano. Artist’s Website, 2005. Web. 21 Oct. 2014. http://www.dellagracevolcano.com/statement.html.

  • Volcano, Del LaGrace, and Ulrika Dahl. Femmes of Power: Exploding Queer Femininities. London: Serpent’s Tail, 2008.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Del LaGrace Volcano & Jay Prosser

  2. Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands

    Eliza Steinbock

Authors
  1. Del LaGrace Volcano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jay Prosser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Eliza Steinbock
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany

    Stefan Horlacher

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Volcano, D.L., Prosser, J., Steinbock, E. (2016). INTER*me: An Inter-Locution on the Body in Photography. In: Horlacher, S. (eds) Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-71325-7_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation