Leah James: "Opportunities are all around us, but long-term sustainability is much harder to secure."

Leah James is your favorite doll's favorite photographer. Otherwise known as "femmedaddy", the Brooklyn-based image maker and performance artist's work spans from boudoir to editorial to portraits. She's the doll who does it all.

For the third issue of The Girls Book, we asked Leah to step out from behind the camera and into the eyes of the lens. Naturally, she slayed the photoshoot to bits and passerby jaws were found on the floor. We also spoke to Leah about her artistic practice, the sacredness of T4T, and how she keeps her head on straight in the circus called New York City.

✩ What borough are you in, and what tethers you to your neighborhood?

I am in Brooklyn, the community of trans folks, and the food keeps me tethered to this borough.

✩ If you were one of the train lines, which one would you be and why?

I would be the Q train because I’m a QT, and trains women are rail women.

✩ What’s your bodega deli order?

I generally hit the deli no earlier than 2 am after a night of drinking, and the only answer to this question is: Philly cheesesteak on a roll. With no lettuce, tomato, or mayo because why the fuck would lettuce, tomato, and mayo belong on a Philly cheesesteak?

✩ How would you describe the artistic work that you do, and how did you get into it?

Almost everything I produce is trans-femme-centric. I conceptualize my photographic practice as a love letter to other trans people, while my work as a performance artist is pointed inward and entirely personal. An important facet of my work as a photographer is being a trans person who photographs other trans people. As trans people, we all have an understanding of how hard it can be at times to see reflections of ourselves. My mission is to create representations of my community that feel authentic to who they are.

I am much more invested in reflecting a person's ethos rather than their physicality. The trust placed in me by interlocutors and the intimacy that is created through the process of image-making is something I hold very close to my heart. My performance work looks to restage body art as a trans experience. I disrupt rites of passage and rituals tied to womanhood through the means of bloodletting. In each of my pieces, I draw upon my experience of medicalized transition to recast these rituals in a process of self-actualization.

✩ What is your cultural background, and how does it shape your art, if at all?

The cultural background from which I draw is trans culture. As a trans person entrenched in trans community, t4t shapes every part of my life. I always do my best to show up for those around me. The bulk of the work I produce explicitly serves a purpose of attracting opportunities to the subjects of my images. One example of how I do this is by creating a comfortable and affirming environment for trans SWs to come to me for advertising photos. Nothing makes me happier than using my skill set however I can to help other trans people thrive in their endeavors. It’s 2024; let’s get the dolls paid.

✩ What’s your relationship to hustling? How do you not get lost?

Who said I don’t get lost? I am so fucking tired. I feel that trans cultural production is so rich in NYC because this city forces you to grind. You have to produce in order to survive. My grind is informed by having experienced homelessness, housing instability, and financial insecurity during my time in New York. My approach to hustling is doing whatever I need to in order to meet my needs while trying my best to not burn out. In terms of keeping my head straight, touching grass helps, but doesn’t always cut it. I have been fortunate enough to cultivate a community of other trans folks around me who hold me in my times of need.

✩ New York City is such a transient transplant town where people come from all over the world, but what’s your relationship to America overall?

I’ve got some gasoline if you have a match.

✩ The city can be considered a “doll’s paradise,” where not only trans femmes can thrive in their personhood, but also in term of career, from fashion, to modeling, nightlife, etc. How true has that notion been for you, in your experience of working in the City?

Having lived in NYC for over a decade, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone refer to this city as a doll’s paradise, but I do know that trannies have a chokehold on NYC. In my experience, this city is a hub for so many of us because of the misconception that in a city so populated, you’ll blend right in.

However, even in this massive sea of bodies, eyes are always on us everywhere we go at all times. Whether those eyes belong to trade eye-fucking us on our commute to a gig, or to an editorial director scrolling our Instagram while looking for their next flash in the pan “it” girl. Opportunities are all around us, but long-term sustainability is much harder to secure.

✩ What’s your ideal get-ready routine for a night out?

I don’t have a set routine or flow really, but as long as the mug is right it’s gonna be a cute night.

✩ How do you go about finding community?

It finds me.