My good friend Skylar Kergil was invited to be the Keynote Speaker at the Breaking the Silence GLSEN event at the Egg this past Friday, and I was lucky enough to tag along with him and his girlfriend, Anna, to hear him speak and take some photos.

Sky is one of those amazing people who you meet and instantly know they are just a wonderful person, full of wisdom and joy. I really can’t say enough about him! Here is Sky and the lovely Anna before the event.

Can’t do without some press photos as well.

Sky prepared some amazing words to share with the folks who attended the GLSEN event, and I found the story he told incredibly moving, honest and brave. Below there is a link to his lecture which you should listen to right now. He spoke about his experience as an out trans man (F to M) and overcoming bullying, finding acceptance within himself and society, loving life and his choices – and how hard that road is to travel, and how worth it that journey is.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oFOGmw75Is&w=420&h=315]

Here are some of the good folks to helped organize the GLSEN Breaking the Silence event; they did a great job and put in a lot of work!

I’ve worked with Sky quite a bit over the few years we’ve known each other and I’ve taken portraits of him for my nude series, A Quiet Cadence, two of which are shown below.

Sky will be graduating from Skidmore College this May and is an active YouTube Blogger, where he has documented his transition. Through this he has gained almost 30,000 subscribers and 3.2 million views. Sky also is a talented musician/poet and his music page can be viewed on Bandcamp. As part of his senior thesis as a Studio Art major at Skidmore College, Sky has started the ongoing photography project of Re-Humanizing the Trans-Masculine Community which “focuses around the day-to-day lives of trans-masculine identified individuals. Through disposable camera snapshots and selected writings, the project aims to show the many ways in which this community interacts with other identities and communities.”

I took this last portrait because I couldn’t resist trying to capture the elusive quality of beauty that makes Sky one of the most amazing men I’ve ever met. It doesn’t quite do him justice.

Next blogpost will feature Sky and Anna modeling in my ongoing photography project, so tune in soon for more updates on my photography and Sky!