Colette

“Colette” is a documentary project that focuses on a transgender woman I met in 2015 after a photoshoot for a fundraising calendar supporting a transgender youth organization. Since 2015, Colette and I have collaborated together, sharing her journey transitioning from male to female.

I began photographing the transgender community while in college and continued to do so after graduating and moving home to St. Louis, MO, in 2011. This led me to reconnect with an old friend from high school, Harrison, who was just beginning his transition. When I moved to Los Angeles, I was hoping to find people in the trans community to connect with to continue sharing the beautiful journeys of transitioning genders, which led me to Colette,

Sara Swaty

Sara Swaty is a Los Angeles-based fashion, beauty, documentary, and portrait photographer with a BFA in Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology and a minor in Cultural Anthropology.  Her personal work explores identity, gender, and disability.

In 2019, her work was exhibited in Dresden, Germany, and was awarded 3rd place for the Hellerau Photography Award. In Los Angeles, the Lucie Foundation sponsored her solo exhibit of "Hayley to Harrison." At the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2015, Sara was awarded the Reuters Mentorship Award. She has been featured by CNN, The Advocate, and the World Photography Organization in addition to being short-listed for the Lucie Foundation Emerging Artist Scholarship. Sara's work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, and St. Louis and is a part of Leslie Lohman Museum's permanent collection.