Mark Hoffman

I’m a photographer, digital media specialist, musician, and parent living in Kirkland Washington with my wife, Tina. In addition to participating on our steering committee, I function as the Gender Personal webmaster and photographer.

I grew up during the 1960’s—a time of radical social questioning. A perennial topic among my friends was how “The System” rewards fitting in and penalizes individuality.

As an artistic, introverted youth, I had plenty of feelings of not fitting in. But as a straight, male-identified white man, my life was a breeze compared to so many people who suffered from divisions of gender, class, race, and other biases. Ironically, my ability to “pass” made it easier to sidestep the work of fully expressing my true self.

This is all to say that, for me, working on the Gender Personal project feels like diving deeper into unfinished personal business.

I’m inspired by Jacqui’s artistic journey because it is so much about the need to know ourselves and to communicate our experiences in ways that are explicit as well as subtle, uncomfortable as well as beautiful, complex as well as patently true.

As I’ve met, photographed, and spoken to people in this project, I’ve been struck by their bravery, which in turn has fortified my own commitment to help develop compassion wherever bias and isolation prevail.

You can see many of Marc’s photos on his website, www.SongbirdPhoto.com, and on his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Mr.Marc.Hoffman.