Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Alas i lived too long before i transitioned and have a lot of pictures of the person i pretended to be.  I did meet a lot of people and their are memories, but i dislike that i was in the picture that way.

So the question remains what should i do...? burn them to leave no trace of my past life, keep them for when i want to remember old memories of  places i have been and friends i met?,  A part of me wishes to lose my past, but i like the other people in the pictures and the places.  Cutting myself out would also be difficult.....  I am handy with photoshop but it would take along time to get all the pictures.

When I'm further along in my transition I don't plan on getting rid of any old photos. The ones I have are ones I kept because I liked them. I don't like who I am in them but they are pictures of happy times and people I love. Memories that I like to remember. But I can understand you wanting to get rid of them or just keep them private. You gotta do what feels right.

Quote from: andthenwekisss on July 12, 2010, 03:03:24 PM
When I'm further along in my transition I don't plan on getting rid of any old photos. The ones I have are ones I kept because I liked them. I don't like who I am in them but they are pictures of happy times and people I love. Memories that I like to remember. But I can understand you wanting to get rid of them or just keep them private. You gotta do what feels right.

I guess if someone asks me i could say these are pictures of my brother, he died a long time ago.  Then make up a neat story about how he died.  "Oh, I am sorry how did he die?", well during the cold war era he was a double agent working in the soviet union, sent many secrets back to washington, until they found him, and shot him after a harrowing car chase in the streets of Moscow.

Quote from: Izumi on July 12, 2010, 03:11:58 PM
I guess if someone asks me i could say these are pictures of my brother, he died a long time ago.  Then make up a neat story about how he died.  "Oh, I am sorry how did he die?", well during the cold war era he was a double agent working in the soviet union, sent many secrets back to washington, until they found him, and shot him after a harrowing car chase in the streets of Moscow.

Funny you should say that because I was thinking about saying the same thing but I'd feel so bad telling people my brother died haha Maybe once I know people who don't know I was born male, I'll tell them I had a really long really butch phase.

I sorted though my old ones keeped the most andro and the ones I liked. And hey I am proud and out about who I am so it doesn't matter to me much whether any one sees them.

I get a mild thrill when I show my old pictures, but I always show them next to curent pictures to give a full example of my progress in transition. (I have a vain streak, I will admit it.)
I am not going stealth. I have too many friends and family to walk away from. Also I am too old to successfuly go stealth, my paper trail is extensive. So my motivation to obfuscate the past is non existant. So I don't care to get rid of my pictures. Especialy my wedding pics.

I like to be able to compare the journey from U.S.Marine Vietnam vet in dress Blues with all the medals on to U.S.Marine Viet vet in a ball gown at the U.S.Marine Corp ball in an evening gown with the same medals in miniature on it.What a huge difference!!

I go through all my old ones, and remember family and friends part.  These pictures are still part of who I was and part of MY past.

Quote from: Izumi on July 12, 2010, 02:58:47 PM
Alas i lived too long before i transitioned and have a lot of pictures of the person i pretended to be.  I did meet a lot of people and their are memories, but i dislike that i was in the picture that way.

So the question remains what should i do...? burn them to leave no trace of my past life, keep them for when i want to remember old memories of  places i have been and friends i met?,  A part of me wishes to lose my past, but i like the other people in the pictures and the places.  Cutting myself out would also be difficult.....  I am handy with photoshop but it would take along time to get all the pictures.

I saved this kind of stuff in keepsake boxes. Maybe someday it'll be interesting to take them out and see them again.

Don't have any on display, keep them in a drawer!!

Caroline

I've been camera shy most of my life so there are very few pictures, at least in my possession that I can do anything with... I think I have one old drivers license, 2 or 3 from HS excluding the ones in the yearbooks... and really only 4 since reaching adulthood prior to transition, most of those are on the web posted by others who refuse to remove the damn things from the interwebs.

I just show them anyway.

I can't change who I was, and in a strange way I feel proud that I made it to where I am now, from there.

Oh and I always use my male name and male pronouns when referring to the old me too. Kind of emphasises that I have indeed changed a lot.

Mmm, I would definitely keep them, but boxing them away sounds like the best option. I've always done this anyway, as I've never seen myself in those photographs.

I too realise that those few photos I do have of myself are (and will be) of my past, though I don't have many of these as I'm always behind the lens. Most photos of me are actually dotted around the family home. I can't very well ask my parents to take those down, and it would be strange to have this photographic paper trail which ends all of a sudden in my own photo albums. Instead I guess I've just become numb to these. I've developed an odd mental block around my own masculine self-image, which helps sanitise those memories somewhat - mental Photoshop. ^_^

Consider them photos of a close friend, or a relative, that you don't see any more.

I purged every picture I could get my hands on when I was about 15 and avoided cameras like a death ray after that, whenever I wasn't in girl mode. Not many pictures escaped  ;D

I have run every photo of me from before and during transition (pre-ffs) through my paper shredder.  This includes my old passport, my original hospital birth certificate (with my little hand and footprints)... and more.

I thought of getting rid of all of my old pictures, but there's a lot of them floating around Facebook so it would be impossible to get rid of them all. It sucks knowing that they're out there, because I would hate to have anyone attribute my old appearance with my new one, but if anything people will be amazed at how much better I will look. For the meantime though, I'm avoiding cameras like the plague.  ;)

Quote from: rejennyrated on July 13, 2010, 03:48:01 AM
I just show them anyway.

I can't change who I was, and in a strange way I feel proud that I made it to where I am now, from there.

Oh and I always use my male name and male pronouns when referring to the old me too. Kind of emphasises that I have indeed changed a lot.

Funny you should say this! I was talking to my bestie tonight about when I'm fully female and I meet people who don't know, and if I should tell them. I agree with her that I shouldn't hide it from people I care about. I just said pretty much what you said. I'm proud to be trans. I know that when I'm done transitioning, I'll be so much stronger and I'll be even more proud of myself for what I went through.
Plus I don't HATE how I look now, so I don't want to get rid of all my pictures on facebook or anything haha. There are pictures I would miss too much. Mainly pictures during highschool and with my baby nieces, they moved so I don't see them anymore.

From around the age of 18 I avoided the camera like the plague. I destroyed any pictures of me including pictures taken of me by relatives, if I saw them and they were not looking, I took them from the albums and later destroyed them.  After I changed, I still did not like my picture being taken, however I have mellowed with age and ones taken of me since I changed that are good I keep.

One of my favorite pictures is one of my grandmother and me.  I had it blown up and it now resides in my living room.  May be one day I will have a few more pictures taken.

Kind regards
Sarah B