Melissa Scallan | London-based writer, speaker and adviser
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Formento + Formento

Formento + Formento Biwty
Biwty, 1 Thailand, 2016

Limited edition print
20 x 30 in (available in other sizes)
Price from $3,000

Courtesy of the artists

This beautiful, sympathetic and striking image is of transgender Thai model, Biwty.
 Connecticut-based Formento + Formento travelled to Thailand to work with Bangkok’s transgender community on their Second Kind of Woman series. The aim of the project was to confront people’s prejudices and fears to try and nudge them past embarrassment, hate or indifference into accepting the whole spectrum of sexual preference.
 They’d intended photographing Biwty at the colourful, bustling Wat Bot Bon Floating Market, however it was unexpectedly closed. Instead, impeccably styled, sumptuously coloured and beautifully lit Biwty is presented alone and contemplative. The normally hectic river is calm, meditative and deserted except for a tethered boat carrying intricate and elaborately-decorated Khon masks.
 With their backgrounds in commercial photography, Hawaiian BJ and British Richeille bring glamour, timelessness, meticulous styling and a thoughtful use of colour and lighting to their psychologically evocative, cinematic photographs.
 They’re just completing their new series, Spies, Lies and Saboteurs, an homage to the unsung heroines of World War II. The staged and sensual images depict the network of spies and amateurs - from military women to journalists, cooks and actresses - whose acts of extraordinary courage and inventiveness wrought havoc on German occupied Europe and helped change the world.
 
Formento + Formento are exhibiting with Nue Gallery, opening 1st February 2020, at Espace Oppidum 30, Rue de Picardie, 75003, Paris. Their work will also be on display at Photo London, 14th-17th May 2020, with ARTITLEDcontemporary

For more information formento2.com

Hedge, issue 57, pp68-73, February 2020
All writing copyright Melissa Scallan © 2014-2020