Artist Profile: Sarah Wong
Published January 1, 2017 by Nicole Webb
Sarah Wong
“These children feel very deeply inside that they’re born in the wrong gender…they really touched my heart because they are honest and pure about their identity. They actually told us, and me as a photographer, this is who I am. We felt, actually, all together that we were on kind of on a mission, like telling the world this is how we should look.” – Sarah Wong
From 2003 to 2018, Dutch photographer Sarah Wong followed and photographed the lives of cross-gendered children. She was invited into their homes, schools, and daily life, proving they are regular children living the lives they have always wanted. These images were the first official photos of transgender children from the Netherlands. Originally published in the Dutch daily newspaper, “De Volkskrant (The People’s Paper),” Wong created the series of photographs, which later became a published book titled “Inside Out: Portraits of Cross Gender Children,” to bring awareness and inform people about this vulnerable population.
Sarah Wong, Authentic Self, photograph, 2006, 2019.22.2.
Sarah Wong, Authentic Self: Dees, photograph, 2018, 2024.21.1.
Sarah Wong, Tomorrow’s Dream, photograph, 2004, 2004.0336.1.