LOS ANGELES—Photographer Dave Naz is an artist who inhabits and documents various social milieu, as he has demonstrated in seven books and numerous gallery shows around the world. Beginning his creative life as a musician in various punk rock bands, including Chemical People and Down By Law, Naz switched over to photography in 1995. In 2001, he began assisting New York underground filmmaker, writer and photographer Richard Kern. Naz went on to explore other worlds, including the adult industry, and folks in the biz will know his work from Hustler's Barely Legal and Taboo magazines.
For the past couple years, Naz has been navigating new territory, interviewing and photographing individuals whose gender identities fall outside traditional boundaries. In a new gallery show that opens this Saturday at Coagula Curatorial, Naz will display the fruits of his immersion into the lives of people who represent a wide range of gender expression. As Naz explained, his subjects include transgender people, but many identify as genderqueer, genderfluid, gender nonconforming, queer and femme.
The show, titled Identity, is a solo exhibition of Naz’s work. According to a release from the gallery, “the exhibit is an eye-opening musing on all of the people who don't fit neatly into a convenient box.”
Concurrent with the exhibit, Naz is releasing his eighth book, Genderqueer: And Other Gender Identities, published through Rare Bird Books. Genderqueer also includes essays by many of Naz's photographic subjects on how they identify their own gender. In addition to the book, Naz has produced the first volume of a zine titled Identity, which features photographs and interviews with transgenders, including prominent personalities Buck Angel, Jiz Lee and James Darling. (Click here to purchase a copy of the zine.)
AVN asked Naz how he the project came about. Naz explained that the idea for the series started when queer adult performer Drew DeVeaux emailed him about working together. “I thought she had such a unique look,” Naz said. “Then I photographed Syd Blakovich and Jiz Lee. Jiz identifies as genderqueer and prefers the pronouns they/them. That's when things really started to progress with the project.”
Naz explained how another performer got involved. ”I've known Buck Angel since 2001 and always wanted to work with him. This project seemed like a good fit. Jiz and Buck helped me so much. Jiz Lee wrote one of the essays in the book, too. Morty Diamond, Ignacio Rivera, Sarah Burghauser and Jenny Factor also contributed essays to the book.”
At present, Naz is focusing on transgender women for his next book as well as a documentary. “I've been interviewing them too, and I'm really happy with the way it's coming along,” Naz said. “The most recent set of interviews are Khloe Hart, Michelle Austin, Birdmountain, Jade Downing and Michelle Firestone. I'm still looking for transgender women to shoot for this project. Wendy Summers has been helping me with some of the questions for my interview too. Wendy and Jiz have both been very helpful with this.” (For more on the project, click here to read an earlier interview with Naz on AVN.com.
The opening reception for Identity will take place 7 to 11 p.m. on Saturday, November 8 at Coagula Curatorial, 974 Chung King Road, downtown Los Angeles, 90012. According to Naz, “I’m pretty sure Buck Angel will be there, as will models in the book: Afro Disiac, Matty Boi and Wolfe Moon. It's going to be a great night.”
