A Memoir of a Boy

"I was born a boy, but I want to die as a woman," she said, sitting nervously in a taxi on her way to an appointment at a gender-affirming care clinic in Bangkok.

It was truly a point of no return. She was nervous, but at the same time ready.

"It's my life, and there are no other real options, even though I'm sacrificing a great deal. I just want a normal life, and I want people to accept my past," she said.

Trans women, especially in Southeast Asia, often live on the margins of society. Finding regular employment can be difficult, and many end up working in the sex industry or in entertainment.

"It is sad to see how people treat trans women as a group rather than as individuals," she said repeatedly.

As the project unfolded—from the first photographs taken in January 2009 until May 2010—something profound happened. An identity, a body, and a personality gradually transformed before my camera.

After the surgery, her new name was Aira, and her new life could finally begin. I documented every step of the journey.

It was Aira herself who gave the project its title, A Memoir of a Boy. She wanted me to document her journey and her struggle to live openly as the woman she had always known herself to be.