Wynne Neilly (born 1990) is a Canadian artist and photographer based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, focused on photographing

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

people.

Life

Neilly attended the Image Arts program at

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public university, public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Garden District, although i ...

, graduating in 2012. He began creating works of

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

ure in the early 2010s. He is based in

. Neilly is queer and

transmasculine A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

. In 2018, he described his maleness as "really only based on my physical appearance", stating that "there is a lot more to me and my gender identity."

Work

Neilly's work is largely focused on exploring

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

and

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

, and specifically "the queer and trans body". In 2014, when he was 24, a photo taken by him was on the cover of '' Original Plumbing''. The photo was part of a larger series titled ''Female to "Male"'', focused on

gender transitioning Gender transition is the process of changing one's gender presentation or sex characteristics to accord with one's internal sense of gender identity – the idea of what it means to be a man or a woman,Brown, M. L. & Rounsley, C. A. (1996) ''True ...

and specifically on Neilly's own transition. In 2015, Neilly was the winner of the "Flash Forward" photography competition hosted by the

Magenta Foundation The Magenta Foundation is a charitable art publishing house based in Toronto. It was established in 2004 by MaryAnn Camilleri to publish work from both domestic and international emerging artists through exhibitions and publications. In 2005 the fo ...

Elliot Page Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page; born February 21, 1987) is a Canadian actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Elliot Page, various accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Actress, Academy Award nomination, tw ...

requested that Neilly be the one to photograph him for the cover of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' in 2021 after Page's transition, because he wanted a photographer who was also transgender. When Neilly received an email from a ''Time''

photo editor Microsoft Photo Editor is a raster graphics editor component of Microsoft Office first included with Microsoft Office 97. It features editing tools to texturize, create negatives, adjust gamma, and add transparency to GIF images. It was replaced in ...

, he initially thought it was fake, having believed that the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

ended his career. He photographed Page on March 5, 2021, for the March 29 – April 5 issue of ''Time''; it was the first time a transgender man was featured on the magazine's cover. He later told Ryerson University's publication that " treally meant the world to me to be able to help

age Age or AGE may refer to: Time and its effects * Age, the amount of time someone or something has been alive or has existed ** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1 * Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older ...

tell his story". Neilly has cited

Catherine Opie Catherine Sue Opie (born 1961) is an American fine-art photographer and educator. She lives and works in Los Angeles, as a professor of photography at University of California at Los Angeles. Opie studies the connections between mainstream and i ...

as his "number one photographic inspiration", along with other inspirations including Cassils,

Michelle Groskopf Michelle Groskopf is a Canadian photographer. Life Groskopf grew up in the 1980s in a suburb of Toronto. As an adult, she moved to Europe and then New York City, where she worked as a television producer and as a professor at the School of Visu ...

, and

Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe (; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-p ...

Exhibitions

Neilly's work has been exhibited at the

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...

The Annenberg Space for Photography The Annenberg Space for Photography (2009 - 2020) was an exhibition space in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles' Westside. Founded in March 2009, it was dedicated to displaying photographic works, ranging from artistic to journalistic, ...

Southern Norway Art Museum The Southern Norway Art Museum ( no, Sørlandets Kunstmuseum) is located in Kristiansand, Norway in the building that until 1970 hosted the Kristiansand Cathedral School. The museum is a foundation, and it was created in 1995, with the counties ...

, and the

Ryerson Image Centre The Image Centre (formerly known as the Ryerson Image Centre and the Ryerson Gallery and Research Centre) is an photography and art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The centre is a university museum operated by Toronto Metropolitan University ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neilly, Wynne 21st-century Canadian photographers Queer photographers Toronto Metropolitan University alumni 1990 births Year of birth uncertain Date of birth missing (living people) Canadian LGBT photographers Canadian transgender artists Transgender photographers Transgender male artists Living people 21st-century Canadian LGBT people