A compassionate portrait of a Texan trans woman living on the margins

One day in 2020, while the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak, photographer Tom ‘TBow’ Bowden decided to head downtown in his local city of Houston. With stay-at-home orders in force, instead of the usually packed sidewalks, he found closed shops, traffic lights directing empty roads, and a handful of people to whom those orders couldn’t apply.

“It’s interesting that when there is a crisis, like a pandemic, everybody runs for cover,” TBow says. “The streets of downtown are deserted, except for the people who have nowhere to go – and those are the people you see on the streets.”

Among the people he encountered on the street – most of whom were homeless – one person caught his eye, and he walked over and struck up a conversation. Adorned with multiple ear and facial piercings, and striking amethyst hair with a purple t-shirt to match, TBow was introduced to Johnny, who said to him: “Here I’m Johnny, but let me show you, I have a place where I can become the other person.”

Taking TBow to a spot in the woods under the city bridge, following a barely visible dirt path, Johnny began changing out of their t-shirt and shorts into a pink sleeveless top and hot pants, applying lipstick and eyeshadow – and she became Jazanae. “It was stunning. She took me to her secret place and showed me her breasts that she’s really proud of – she had been taking oestrogen,” TBow says. “I got to see two distinct personalities, because of the fear of not being able to be Jazanae full-time.”

For the next six months, TBow would meet up almost every week with Jazanae, where she would dress up in the few women’s clothes that she owned, apply makeup and work it in front of the lens. Now, a number of these portraits are presented in the photographer’s series Transition – a vibrant, intimate flaunt of Jazanae’s gender identity, in a world and context where that expression is increasingly dangerous.

Homelessness in the USA is a crisis. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are approximately 180 people per 100,000 experiencing homelessness. For comparison, the UK’s number of rough sleepers on any night is 5.4 per 100,000. Yet, for trans folks, the incredibly tough situation of being homeless is even harder. With one in five transgender people in the USA having experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, they are far more likely to become homeless than gender-conforming people, as well as find access to temporary shelter – particularly appropriate to their gender – extremely limited.

Yet perhaps the most alarming statistic concerns the violence – often fatal – that trans people face, with at least 300 trans and nonbinary people having been killed in the USA since 2013. Two-thirds were Black trans women. It’s why Jazanae had to present as Johnny while being out on the streets. “She was very nervous about being out in the open,” TBow explains. “She becomes Johnny when she’s around people because frankly, she’s afraid of violence, of getting beat up – she told me that she had been roughed up.”

It's a bleak picture, but ultimately TBow’s photographs are a portrait of joy and resilience. From capturing Jazanae applying makeup in a quiet corner, to posing on an American flag – the pictures capture a woman being completely free to do as she pleases.

TBow would eventually lose touch with Jazanae, but the last he heard from her was positive news. “She told me that maybe she had found some housing, and then the next time I talked to her she said that she had to come in [to town] on the bus because she was living 15 miles away – but I lost contact,” TBow says. “And I think at the time, having housing and being a happy trans woman, I’m just hoping it worked out for her.”

It also speaks to what drives him as a photographer – since retiring from his day job in 2015 he trawls the streets looking to uplift and platform those who are often unseen. “I can’t overestimate how grateful I am to be working with the disenfranchised – those who are just outside the boundaries of social respectability,” he continues. “And especially grateful to have been part of Jazanae’s journey. She was looking for me and I was looking for her.”

Transition and other street photography from TBow Bowden can be seen on his website and Instagram.

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