Amos Mac | |
---|---|
Born | Augusta, Georgia |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | The New School |
Known for | Photographer, writer, and publisher |
Notable work | "Original Plumbing" |
Website | https://www.amosmac.com/ |
Amos Mac (born 1981)[citation needed] is an American writer, photographer and a publisher from Augusta, Georgia. Mac is based in Los Angeles as a writer for television and film .[1]
He grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[2]
As a trans man, he co-founded and became editor in chief of Original Plumbing,[3] a magazine that focuses on the culture of female-to-male trans men and sexuality.[4] Mac chose Original Plumbing's title as a playful take on the obsession the media has with the genitalia of trans people.[5] To express and explore his culture of being a trans man in the United States, he and his friend Rocco Kayiatos started the magazine Original Plumbing in 2009 while they were both living in San Francisco.[6]
As a visual artist, Mac's photography have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue Italia, BUTT Magazine, and OUT.
In 2011, he went on a national tour with feminist art group Sister Spit where he showcased photographs, read his writing and spoke candidly about trans representation in the media.[7]
In 2015 Amos Mac photographed a campaign for H&M's sister brand, & Other Stories, which became the first fashion campaign created by an all-transgender cast and crew.[8] The campaign featured models Hari Nef and Valentijn De Hingh.[9]
In June 2016, it was announced that Mac would be featured in The Trans List[10] an HBO documentary film produced by Janet Mock along with director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Mock also interviews the cast, which features ten prominent transgender figures besides Mac: Laverne Cox, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Buck Angel, Kylar Broadus, Caroline Cossey, Shane Ortega, Alok Vaid-Menon, Nicole Maines, Bamby Salcedo and Caitlyn Jenner.
In The Trans List, Mac describes his life before transitioning. "I really don't know why I was waiting for so long," Mac says. "It seemed like it was no longer an option for my sanity or for my health. I had to stop spending so much time trying to cover up my emotions and my problems, and I had to deal with myself."[11]
Amos Mac sat for photographer Mark Seliger for his 2016 book of photographs On Christopher Street: Transgender Stories.[12]
Mac currently works in Los Angeles, California on television shows and films. It was announced in October 2019 that Amos would be a writer for the Gossip Girl reboot for HBO Max.[13]
With Aisling Chin-Yee, Mac co-wrote No Ordinary Man, a Canadian documentary that premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.[14] The film is a portrait of Billy Tipton, the influential jazz musician who was revealed after his death to have been transgender.[15]
In 2014, Mac was named to the Trans 100 list for "outstanding contributions to the trans community."[16][17]
In 2018, after being named a Lambda Literary Writers' Retreat Fellow for Emerging LGBT Voices,[18] it was announced that Mac was writing a young adult novel.