Healing in Heels; A Friendship Love Letter

I live like

My main mannequin;

I articulate

My limbs and loci,

Cast my image

Into the mirror-matrix

And find

Reference in refraction,

Healing in Heels.

– Luke Bodley

“This shoot began as my personal celebration of the ways in which friendship can encourage personal growth. Matthew Grant a.k.a Yaya, the shoot’s subject, entered my life nearly 2 years ago in a whirlwind of dreaded wigs and 2-day-old smokey eye. Since then, I’ve watched him tease, play with & manipulate his gendered identity to express how he feels on any given day. I’ve heeded his pearly nuggets of wisdom dropped so freely into long, late night discussions. In knowing him, I’ve gotten to know new parts of myself. This shoot was my love letter to him. Captured behind the lens of another close friend and community member Joshua Slade Jasper, we hoped to celebrate a radical devotion to the self and the outward expression of this devotion, whatever form that may take.” – Millie Sykes