‘The Aggressives’ (2005 documentary directed by Daniel Peddle) follows a group of POC trans masculine + non binary folx in New York City.

This film has become a cult classic in the queer community, with it’s intimate fly on the wall approach ‘the aggressives’ shows a tender and human exploration of this amazing part of the community.  

I chose to recreate the iconic still from the film of Octavio Sanders holding up his shirt to reveal he has bound his chest with duct tape. Fortunately binding practices have come a long since 2005 and this type of DIY binding is a lot less common. This is a good thing because binding ones chest can be unsafe and cause damage to internal organs if not done safely. I decided to shoot Mahlah in a compression chest binder by gender affirming care company ‘ForThem’ who have made it their mission to ensure binding can be done safely by anyone anywhere.