My work “Beyond Binary” is about people identifying their gender as non-binary. Until now I portrayed about 20 people between the age 15-30. After a year I started to complete this work by also including people over 35 years.

Our world is binary, wherever you look at. These people show that gender is an infinite spectrum where “male” and “female” are merely two points on it. Non-binary people can see themselves in between, outside or completely unrelated to these points – or not on the spectrum at all.

Some of them identify as trans, some have transitioned, some not. On a definition level the term non-binary is part of the trans umbrella, but not all identify as trans.

As a documenting non-binary photographer myself I started this project in April 2022, to find out how young people identify their gender these days. When I was 20, I only had the words of Judith Butler to deconstruct gender. But now our wording is totally different and it is obviously not a "trans trend".

These young people have the courage to find the essence of themselves, it comes with traumatic experiences and daily discriminations. They are all in therapy, some of them are neurodiverse, mostly autistic.

I always ask them to write down their experiences and thoughts about their gender identity. They give us an intimate insight, which is very valuable. It is so important that they can speak for themselves. And I ask them to write down their thoughts for a better future.

The photographic aspect depends on what my protagonists want to show me, I don't force anything. The first layer is about a place they choose where they feel comfortable. this can be at home, in the park, with friends. The second layer is that I set up my studio there to give them another stage to express themselves.

The third layer ist the text - some of them write in english as it is perhaps easier to express than in the German language.

The work want to clarify the fact that non-binary people don't have to look androgynous or crazy colorful. The work wants to enlighten, to take you into the world of non-binary/trans people, how do they think, why do they suffer, how could we do better. In the end to give you the feeling that we are all the same - humans!