Hangelina is a person I met at my job as a housekeeper in home care.
While I was supposed to clean or tidy their home and help with other daily tasks, most people would also enjoy the company and conversation. When I first met Hangelina, they introduced themselves as Han, a 86 year old man. Han is short for their birth-name: Angelus. Everytime I went to work at their house, all we did was talk. We shared our inner lives with each other and became close friends. Han told me they have always presented as a man and lived their lives that way, but inside their mind they always felt more female. During our friendship, gradually, I got to know this female side better.
Her name was Hangelina.
I knew her mostly through the letters she wrote me. In this project I try to tell her story through photographs, without Han or Hangelina themselves present.
This is an ode to their courage and life and at the same time a story of a person trying to figure out their gender identity.
While I was supposed to clean or tidy their home and help with other daily tasks, most people would also enjoy the company and conversation. When I first met Hangelina, they introduced themselves as Han, a 86 year old man. Han is short for their birth-name: Angelus. Everytime I went to work at their house, all we did was talk. We shared our inner lives with each other and became close friends. Han told me they have always presented as a man and lived their lives that way, but inside their mind they always felt more female. During our friendship, gradually, I got to know this female side better.
Her name was Hangelina.
I knew her mostly through the letters she wrote me. In this project I try to tell her story through photographs, without Han or Hangelina themselves present.
This is an ode to their courage and life and at the same time a story of a person trying to figure out their gender identity.
