Rona Yefman. LET IT BLEED. | Little Big Man Books

As early as 1996, her younger sibling, Gil, was Yefman’s first model and inspiration. She began an intimate image record of their adolescence, using the camera to invent multiple novel identities in an imaginative world they constructed for themselves. This body of work became a joint archaeological journey, chronicling two siblings’ symbiotic existence as collaborative artists, and their mutual desire to live exterior to the norm. The most complex part of this project occurred between 2000-2008, during which time Yefman documented Gil’s intimate process of transformation from male to a female, and her subsequent transformation back to become, in Gil's words, "beyond any gender". 

Rebelling against conventional gender roles as well as familial ones, this extensive body of work is the focus of the Artist book, Let it Bleed, which combines images of formal role- play and performative acts with snapshots and mixed videotapes that expose very real emotional situations, chronicling an experience of growing up and intense relationships through a curve of fantasies, hopes, and desires; disappointments, confusion, conflicts, and flirtation with familial taboos. 

Let it Bleed. Rona Yefman. 

Limited edition of 500 copies. 192 pages. Offset.  Printed in Italy. 

With contributions by: Gary Indiana, Moyra Davey, Lia Gangitano and Gil Yefman