Scope and content
The Loren Rex Cameron papers document the professional and personal life of photographer Loren Rex Cameron dating 1961-2008. The bulk of materials range from 1993-2003. It contains photographs from various works, including "Our Vision, Our Voices," 1993, and "God's Will," 1994, as well as exhibition materials. The collection also includes correspondence to and from galleries, publishers, and others about Cameron's work, videos, awards, reviews, fan mail, viewers' comments from a 1998 exhibit, magazines and books that feature his work, and postcards advertising various exhibits. Personal material in the collection includes an annotated high school yearbook (1976, Dover, Arkansas), a 20th year reunion booklet, photographs of Rex's family and partner Stephanie Lind, and change of gender and name forms.
Dates
- 1961 - 2008
Creator
- Cameron, Loren, 1959- (Person)
- Cameron, Loren, 1959- (Title of work: Man tool..) (Person)
Language of Materials
Collection material in English
Conditions Governing Use
Patrons viewing the collection in the reading room may take photographs of the
material for research purposes only. These images are prohibited from being reused
or shared in any way or medium without prior approval of Cornell University Library.
High resolution or other reproductions, as well as any publication or dissemination in
any form or media requires the permission of Cornell University Library.
Conditions Governing Use
Due to the fragility and potential degradation of moving image and sound recordings, viewing and listening is limited to items that have been digitized. If an item is in another media format, you may request to have the item digitized for access. Information on ordering access copies may be found on the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections webpage. Audio visual material that has been digitized: V-558.
Biographical / Historical
Loren Rex Cameron, a female to male transsexual and photographer of transgendered bodies, was born August 28, 1959 in Pasadena, California. Self-taught as a photographer and artist, he began producing self-portraits and images of transgender people in 1993. By 1995 his work had been shown in solo exhibitions in San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles. His first photographic book, Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits was published in 1996, winning two Lambda Literary awards (Inaugural Transgender Category and Small Press Category, 1997). In 2001, he published his second publication, an electronic book on the World Wide Web, Man Tool: The Nuts and Bolts of Female-To-Male Surgery (Zero eBooks). In 2003, Taller Experimental Cuerpos Pintados published his large, 2 volume Cuerpos Fotografiados por Cameron, with a prologue by Roberto Edwards, and also Cameron : Correspondencia 1997-2001. An English language edition of Correspondencia appreared the following year and a miniature version of Cuerpos Fotografiados por Cameron came out in 2009. Cameron is celebrated for his seminal work of transgender self-representation in the photographic arts. As a guest speaker, Cameron lectures extensively throughout the United States at community venues, colleges, universities, and art schools. He has published under the name Loren Cameron, and in about 2000, he started going by his middle name Rex.
Extent
4.5 cubic feet.
Abstract
The Loren Rex Cameron Papers consist of photographic portraits created by Loren Cameron, correspondence and other manuscript material specifically documenting the Female to Male transsexual community.
SERIES LIST
Series I. Personal Material Box 1, Box 2, Box 6
Series I consists of personal materials, including resumes, photos of family and friends, family correspondence, yearbooks, etc.
Series II. Projects Box 1, Box 2, Box 4, Box 6
Series III. Exhibitions Box 1, Box 2 Box 4-6
Series III contains materials from various exhibits of Cameron's work, including publicity and viewers' comments/correspondence. Also included are prints from Cameron's "Body Alchemy" exhibit.
Series IV. Correspondence, Reviews and Articles Box 1, Box 2, Box 6
Series IV consists of reviews and articles regarding Cameron's work, along with miscellaneous correspondence. Correspondence regarding speaking engagements, and feedback from those engagements, is also included.
Series V. Magazines Box 2
Series V contains magazines with articles about Loren Cameron, or about his work.
Series VI. Awards Box 3
Series VII. Videos Box 2
Series VII contains videos on transgender issues. Some of the videos have Cameron in them, and some are produced by Cameron.
SEPARATED MATERIAL
The following materials have been separated from the collection and cataloged individually:
Anne Sexton: A Biography by Diane Wood Middlebrook, 1991. Signed by the author on the title page, also inscribed to Loren by the author on the front free endpaper. A laid in letter from Middlebrook to Loren was removed and is in Box 2 Folder 63. Middlebrook endorsed the back cover of Loren Cameron's book Body Alchemy.
Information for the Female to Male Cross Dresser and Transexual by Lou Sullivan, third edition October 1990. Inscribed by the author to Loren. Sullivan signed this book to Cameron before he went through dissolution (died). Cameron met him in the very beginning of Cameron's transition and attended the first FTM support gropus that Sullivan organized. This is the organization known as FTM International that was last expanded by Sullivan's chosen successor, Jameson Green.
S/HE by Minnie Bruce Pratt, 1995. Inscribed by the author to Loren. A laid in letter from the author to Loren and a Firebrand Books card were removed and are] in Box 2 Folder 63.
Blumenstein, Rosalyne. Branded T. 2003.
Boy's Own. No.40-41, 2003: Apr.-Aug.
Brevard, Aleshia. The Woman I Was Not Born To Be: A Transsexual Journey. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001.
Complot. No.77, July 2003.
FTM Resource Guide. San Francisco: FTM International, 6th ed., Oct. 1999.
Physical Description
Manuscripts, photographs, published material, awards, videotapes.
General
- Contact Information:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 2B Carl A. Kroch Library Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524 rareref@cornell.edu http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
- Compiled by:
- Eleanor Brown and Brenda Marston
- April 2002
- April 2002
- EAD encoding:
- Eleanor Brown, April 2002Sara McDermott, January 2010Sarah Keen, March 2010Sarah Keen, April 2010
- Date modified:
- Marcie Farwell, January 2018
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Compiled by Eleanor Brown and Brenda Marston
- Date
- Apr. 5, 2002
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- ENG
Revision Statements
- 12/07/2018: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2007-05-29: converted from EAD 1.0 to EAD 2002
- 2013-10-28: updated by RMC staff
Repository Details
Part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Repository
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
607-255-3530
607-255-9524 (Fax)
rareref@cornell.edu