Sawyer DeVuyst is a 30-year-old transgender artist, model, and furniture maker based in New York.
Since October 2014, he has taken a self-portrait every day and uploaded it onto Instagram as part of an ongoing photo project called "Mine".
DeVuyst told BuzzFeed News that the project began out of an impulse to tell his story as a trans man. "A lot media doesn't really represent us," he said. "I really wanted that lens to change."
Many of the images capture ordinary details of DeVuyst's domestic life, but are also imbued with a classic beauty.
"The aesthetic comes more from my interior design background," DeVuyst said. "It's clean and modern and bright."
At the same time, DeVuyst shies away from filters, and doesn't crop any of his images.
"Not cropping holds me accountable," he said. "I can't crop out my hips, or the mess in my room."
The photographs are reminiscent of social portraiture in the 1980s, recalling photographers like Nan Goldin and Philip Lorca DiCorcia. DeVuyst himself doesn't have much prior experience. "I've only taken one photography class," he said with a laugh.
DeVuyst's photographs stand out not only because of their beauty, but because they speak to a group so seldom seen in mainstream media.
"I’ve gotten a lot of trans people writing me and thanking me for doing the project," DeVuyst said. "Younger trans guys [see] an older trans guy living and thriving, that it’s possible to have a good life later on."
Many of the photographs show DeVuyst undressed. "I’d never seen myself naked until I was probably 23," he said. "I actively did not look at myself in a mirror."
"Now I'm comfortable looking at myself, and that’s been very recent. That came about because of this project. I think it’s important for trans people to see a body that represents them."
At the same time, DeVuyst is aware that his body shouldn't stand for the trans male community as a whole. "I understand that I am white and fit," he said, "and that’s not the majority of trans men."
DeVuyst is also working on another phase of his project called "Theirs", where he's photographing other trans men.
DeVuyst plans to continue his daily self-portraits, at least for now. "I have no projected end date. As long as it’s a needed project I’ll keep doing it," he said.
