She is a He, and the boy is vise versa.

You could see that something was going on in de Vijzelstraat in Amsterdam. People started to walk slowly and their mouths opened a little. Passengers glanced rapidly and uneasily at the windows as though they were not quite convinced that everything was in its proper place.
Portraits by the hand and through the eyes of photographer Jan Van Breda.
Portraits of cross dressers, both man and woman, were hanging on the outer walls of the Vijzelstraatmuseum. So beautiful and raw, that all of a sudden I understood the concept of window licking.

In the series 'We're Coming Out!', Jan Van Breda purposefully chose some of the visitors of The Black Tea Party by Erwin Olaf. A party in order to re-put Amsterdam on the map as being Gay Capital of Europe. A celebration of sexual en racial diversity, a party against gay discrimination and violence.

Men looking like women, men with beards and a wig, women looking like men. Some of them grotesque, some exceedingly toughing, but each one of them honest and secure. And why shouldn’t they? Being free to express themselves, however they like, without judgment.

The work of Jan Van Breda goes past the narcissistic concerns of celebrities and would bee’s who try to imitate them.
At the first glance, you would mistakenly call him a voyeur, yet this is no less simplistic.
The sincerity that his work provokes is real. The ability to awaken discommode, for example, is one of his great strengths, and I can imagine that this emotion is felt by those who cherish as well as by those who hate his photo’s. All the pictures are “in your face”. They don’t hide, palliate or patronize neither viewer nor object.
What is essential is that the gay scene interests him not as a blunt, obscene fact, but for how it shaped the psyche of the person who lives it.
No wonder that some describe his work as shocking. Van Breda works from within, instead of being on the sideline.

In my opinion he’s one of the photographers who make viewers feel more strongly that they are being directly addressed. And yes, that works all right by me.
And meanwhile… one must never fail, to see how it shines with wonder.

Check it out on www.janvanbreda.com