M.K.

This photo of me is from the summer of 2021, and is actually a restaging of a photo from the summer of 2017 with the same cat on the same farm. In the 2017 photo, I was only six months or so into gender transition, and was also still recovering from an eating disorder. In that photo I look (and was) very happy, but I was also extremely, unhealthily, skinny. I spent the years between when these photos were taken working on organic farms, connecting with nature and my body, eating well and working hard. In this photo I see how that connection to the land, and living authentically, healed me in the early years of my womanhood. I see it in the glow of sunshine in my skin and the healthy weight I was able to put on without judging myself or disciplining my body. I’ve come along way in the years since this photo was taken, and I had come along way to get here, and to me it represents an important signpost on the path of my life.