The Transilient photo project, which features interviews with transgender and gender-nonconforming people living all over the United States, is attempting to change the narrative around the trans community — one interview at a time.
Basil Soper and Johanna Case, the couple behind the project, hit the road for two months in summer 2016 with their dog in tow, interviewing trans and gender-nonconforming people from all walks of life.
Originally from North Carolina, Soper told BuzzFeed News he was inspired to start the project after the passing of HB2 — a piece of legislation that impacted his life directly as a trans man.
"The law also publicized a surge of trans stories written from the cis gaze everywhere I looked," Soper said.
"With this project, we really wanted to find a way of having the trans community represent its self in its own words," Case added.
Soper and Case found participants mostly through social media — searching Twitter hashtags and chatting with trans-specific Facebook groups. Once an individual was confirmed, they were added to the trip's itinerary.