Feminists, freaks and fairies: Boxcar photo exhibit takes back the language

Their faces are sincere and stoic -- distracted by nothing as they advocate for their cause.\nMore than a dozen of IU alumna stef shuster's black and white photographs of these faces -- belonging to people participating in rallies and protests over the last six years -- came together Friday night for her exhibition "Feminists, Freaks, & Fairies" at Boxcar Books.\nShuster -- a self-identified trans-queer kid -- said the messages contained in her photographs, pro-feminism and pro-queer, are personal because she is an advocate for related causes.\n"A lot of people are put off by protests," she said, between hugs with friends at the exhibition. "It doesn't catapult people into action like it used to, but it doesn't give people a sense of community. The people involved know they're not by themselves."\nShuster's photographs featured primarily events like abortion-rights rallies, anti-war protests and Amnesty Now marches, but her gallery Friday also included some of her portraits of what she called "freaks" and "fairies," or people who are gay or transgender.\n"It's kind of about taking back the language," she said.\nDozens of Bloomington residents and IU students came and went in the two-hour opening reception, where they were treated to vegetables and dip or wine. Retired Bloomington resident Jim Doud said he'd heard about the exhibition in a local newspaper.\n"I love this type of art," he said. "How it's presented is so unique; it's a real moment captured."\nKristin McCormick, a coworker of shuster's, said she was drawn to the gallery Friday because she had seen some of shuster's photographs at Women Exposed 3, a local art benefit last month.\n"She's got a great way of taking pictures," McCormick said. "She has a way of taking these dramatic events and making it personable."\nAll of schuster's photographs were on sale Friday, and will be until the display ends on Feb. 28. But shuster doesn't make her living this way. For her, photography is a means of expression she takes seriously.\n"It is my passion," she said. "This could be a life project."\nFor more information about this exhibit, visit Boxcar Books' Web site, www.boxcarbooks.org.