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📸 Visibility - Amanda Ethereal (2023)

🖼️ Title:

Visibility - Amanda Ethereal

👤 Creator:

Michi Masumi

🏷️ Subject:

Black British Trans Visibility · LGBTQ+ Activism · Cultural Identity · Portraiture

📁 Collection:

Black British Portrait Archive (Born-Digital Collection) Benjamin Zephaniah Library & Archives

📝 Description (dc:description)

This portrait series documents a Black transgender activist based in Medway, using photography as a visual platform to raise awareness of trans rights and lived experiences, with particular reference to the ongoing challenges faced by trans communities in Uganda.

Captured in Twydall, Kent, the work situates the subject within everyday urban and domestic environments, deliberately rejecting spectacle and instead centring presence, dignity, and self-definition.

Through styling, pose, and gaze, the series explores:

Visibility as resistance
Identity beyond stereotype
The intersection of Blackness, gender, and activism
Diasporic connection and global solidarity

The subject’s visual language—calm, direct, and self-possessed—contrasts with the urgency of the political context, creating a powerful tension between stillness and struggle.

This body of work forms part of Michi Masumi’s ongoing practice-based research, contributing to a born-digital archive of under-represented identities, with a focus on ethical representation and cultural preservation.

🏛️ Publisher

The Black Art Hub CIC
(Benjamin Zephaniah Library & Archives)

📅 Date

June 2023

🖼️ Type

Portrait Photography
Activist Documentation
Practice-Based Research Output
Born-Digital Cultural Archive

⚙️ Format

Digital photographs · JPEG

Camera Bodies:

Canon EOS 90D
Canon EOS M3

Lens:

Canon EF 28–80mm f/3.5–5.6

Post-processing:

Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Photoshop (for experimental compositions)

🆔 Identifier

MM-AT-2023-001 – MM-AT-2023-013

📊 Photographic Data / Technical Metadata

All 13 images were captured in June 2023 and processed in Adobe Lightroom c;lassic and Photoshop .

Full, in-depth photographic data and technical metadata are available as PDF downloads on the collection page.

MM-VIS-001 → Amanda – Twydall June 2023 (7) → Urban alleyway (black & white, key image)

MM-VIS-002 → Amanda – Twydall June 2023 (227) → Garden dress, flowing fabric

MM-VIS-003 → Amanda – Twydall June 2023 (420)-Edit → Red sofa, seated

MM-VIS-004 → Amanda – Twydall June 2023 (439)-Edit → Red sofa, cropped detail

MM-VIS-005 → Amanda – Twydall June 2023 (456) → Public steps / signage

MM-VIS-006 → Amanda – Twydall June 2023 (469) → Urban alleyway (colour, alt framing)

MM-VIS-007 → Amanda – Twydall June 2023 (552) → Close-up portrait

MM-VIS-008 → Amanda – Twydall June 2023 (557) → Close-up variation

MM-VIS-009 → Amanda – Twydall June 2023 (561) → Medium portrait (upper torso)

MM-VIS-010 → amanda 25092023-1-2 → B&W seated garden

MM-VIS-011 → Amanda Suit – Michi Masumi 26072K24 → B&W standing garden

📍 Spatial Coverage/ Location:

Twydall, Medway, Kent, United Kingdom

🤝 Contributor(s)

Subject: Amanda (name used with consent)
Role: Transgender activist and advocate
Photographer: Michi Masumi

🌍 Language

en (English)

⚖️ Rights

Copyright © Michi Masumi 2023
Courtesy of The Black Art Hub CIC
(Benjamin Zephaniah Library & Archives)

📜 Licence

Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives
(CC BY-NC-ND)

🧾 Scope Note

This series documents a Black transgender activist through a collaborative portrait session. The images are intended for archival, research, and educational use, contributing to a broader documentation of marginalised identities within Black British communities.

The work acknowledges the global context of trans rights, particularly in Uganda, while centring the subject’s autonomy and lived experience.

Consent obtained.
Sensitive identity information handled with care and respect.

🔑 Keywords

Black trans activist UK
Trans visibility photography
Uganda LGBTQ+ awareness
Black British LGBTQ+ archive
Trans representation photography
Intersectionality Black trans identity
Activist portraiture UK
Born-digital archive LGBTQ+
Cultural identity and gender
Diaspora and trans rights

💡 🎓 📖 Academia & Research / Archive Insight

The VISIBILITY series (2023) operates as a practice-based exploration of identity, visibility, and resistance through portrait photography, documenting a Black transgender activist within the everyday landscape of Twydall, Medway. Rooted in Human-Centred Creative Anthropology (HCCA) and structured through MAETT™, the work prioritises lived experience as primary data, positioning the subject not as an object of observation but as an active agent within the research process, aligning with participatory and decolonial approaches to visual ethnography (Pink, 2013; Smith, 2012).

The subsequent IDCH transformation series (2025), developed through MMAT™, extends the archive beyond documentation into interpretation, using AI-assisted methods to explore the intangible dimensions of identity, including fragmentation, multiplicity, and emotional resonance. This approach reflects broader shifts in digital anthropology and visual culture, where images are no longer static records but evolving sites of meaning (Favero, 2018).

Framed through the ADN Framework©, this layered methodology demonstrates how born-digital photographic records can evolve into dynamic cultural artefacts, challenging dominant visual narratives and contributing to more equitable and self-defined representations of Black British trans identities.

This directly engages with critiques of algorithmic bias and representational harm within digital systems (Safiya Umoja Noble, 2018; Ruha Benjamin, 2019), while also extending visual strategies of Black diasporic self-representation (Kehinde Andrews, 2018).
In doing so, the work responds to broader global contexts, including the increasing marginalisation of LGBTQ+ communities in regions such as Uganda, situating the archive within both local and transnational discourses of visibility, power, and human rights.

📚 📖 REFERENCE LIST (HARVARD STYLE)
Pink, S. (2013) Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage.
Smith, L.T. (2012) Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London: Zed Books.
Favero, P. (2018) ‘The Present Image: Visual Culture in the Age of Digital Reproduction’, Journal of Visual Culture, 17(2), pp. 131–140.
Safiya Umoja Noble (2018) Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: NYU Press.
Ruha Benjamin (2019) Race After Technology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Kehinde Andrews (2018) Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century. London: Zed Books.

🌍 Further Reading: Identity, Visibility & Digital Representation
Pink, S. — Visual Ethnography methods
Smith, L.T. — Decolonising research practice
Favero, P. — Digital visual culture and image transformation
Safiya Umoja Noble — Algorithmic bias & representation
Ruha Benjamin — Race and technology
Kehinde Andrews — Black British identity & resistance

🔗 📚 ACADEMIC LINKS

🧭 Sarah Pink — Visual Ethnography Methods

🔗🌈 Additional Links & Support

Stonewall UK

🛟🌈 Support & Wellbeing

Medway Pride CIC

The Black LGBTQIA+ Collection is a living, digital archive (community‑centred). Dedicated to preserving, documenting, and celebrating the histories, cultures, and lived experiences of Black LGBTQIA+ people across the UK.

Our archives centre Black voices, self-representation, and counternarratives that have historically been marginalised, erased, or misrepresented within mainstream archives, LGBTQ+ histories, and academic institutions.

It recognises Black LGBTQIA+ communities not as a monolithic group, but as richly diverse, intersectional, and culturally specific, shaped by race, gender, disability, class, migration, faith, language, and geography.
Scope of the Collection
The archive includes, but is not limited to:

Oral histories, interviews, and testimonies
Visual art, photography, illustration, and digital media
Zines, ephemera, flyers, posters, and community publications
Poetry, essays, and creative writing (human-only authored works)
Records of activism, protest, mutual aid, and community organising
Cultural documentation of everyday life, joy, resistance, and care
Contemporary digital storytelling and AI‑critical creative practices

Materials may reflect both public and intimate histories, spanning grassroots organising, nightlife and cultural spaces, chosen families, health and wellbeing, faith, education, and creative expression.

Archival Ethics & Methodology
This collection is guided by Black methodologies, community‑informed consent, and ethical archival care. Contributors retain agency over how their materials are described, contextualised, and accessed. Where possible, content prioritises:

Self‑defined identities and language
Trauma‑aware description practices
Accessibility, including alt text and visual‑first formats
Respect for cultural specificity and lived experience

The archive acknowledges that silence, absence, and fragmentation are themselves historical realities for Black LGBTQIA+ communities, shaped by colonialism, policing, discrimination, and surviving systems not built for our safety.

Living Archive
The BlackLGBTQIA+ Collection is not a static repository. It is a living archive that evolves alongside the communities it serves—welcoming contemporary contributions, intergenerational knowledge, and experimental forms of documentation that challenge traditional archival norms.

📁This collection exists as both a resource and a refuge: a space for learning, remembering, and imagining futures where Black LGBTQIA+ lives are visible, valued, and preserved with care.

LGBTQIA+ legacies on our own terms. No corporate board. No gatekeepers. Just community members preserving what matters. We decide what matters.

🔊 Alt Text:
A full-body view of a person standing in a narrow alleyway with arms extended to touch both sides.

🔊 Alt Text:
A person in a cream suit stands near outdoor steps and public signage in a pedestrian walkway.

🔊 Alt Text:
A person wearing a cream suit sits on a bright red outdoor sofa facing forward in an urban setting.

🔊 Alt Text:
A close view of a seated person on a red sofa focusing on hands, posture, and the texture of a cream suit.

🔊 Alt Text:
A close-up portrait of a person photographed at a slightly different angle with the same clothing and background.

🔊 Alt Text:
A medium close-up showing the upper torso of a person wearing a cream suit outdoors.

🔊 Alt Text:
A close-up portrait of a person from the shoulders up against a neutral outdoor wall.

🔊 Alt Text:
A black-and-white full-body image of a person standing on a garden path surrounded by plants.

🔊 Alt Text:
A black-and-white image of a person seated low among dense plants with fabric draped around the body.

🔊 Alt Text:
A person stands in a small garden courtyard holding out a flowing dress to create a curved shape among plants and paving stones.