{"id":85059,"date":"2020-07-07T10:01:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T10:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=85059"},"modified":"2020-07-14T11:48:39","modified_gmt":"2020-07-14T11:48:39","slug":"chella-man-maryv-benoit-queer-representation-calvin-klein-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/chella-man-maryv-benoit-queer-representation-calvin-klein-pride\/","title":{"rendered":"Chella man and MaryV Benoit on why queer representation matters in front of and behind the 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man and MaryV Benoit on why queer representation matters in front of and behind the lens","subtitle":"The artist couple, currently featured in Calvin Klein\u2019s #ProudInMyCalvins campaign, open up about queer representation and how their chosen families inspire their work\u2014By Megan Wallace","hero":{"video":false,"image":{"ID":85080,"id":85080,"title":"PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_9-1280x960","filename":"PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_9-1280x960-1.jpg","filesize":86224,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_9-1280x960-1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/chella-man-maryv-benoit-queer-representation-calvin-klein-pride\/pr20_maryv_2400x1800_pr_9-1280x960\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"pr20_maryv_2400x1800_pr_9-1280x960","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":85059,"date":"2020-07-13 08:38:41","modified":"2020-07-13 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08:42:00","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1500,"height":1125,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_9.jpg","thumbnail-width":128,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_9.jpg","medium-width":1500,"medium-height":1125,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_9.jpg","medium_large-width":1500,"medium_large-height":1125,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_9.jpg","large-width":1500,"large-height":1125,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_9.jpg","1536x1536-width":1500,"1536x1536-height":1125,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_9.jpg","2048x2048-width":1500,"2048x2048-height":1125,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_9.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":16,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_9.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1500,"wpvr_mobile-height":1125}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"10","caption":"MaryV Benoit. Photo: Ryan McGinley. Courtesy of Calvin Klein. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

Young, attractive and with over 600,000 Instagram followers between them, on paper actor, artist and model <\/span>Chella Man<\/span><\/a> and photographer <\/span>MaryV Benoit<\/span><\/a>\u2014are stars of Calvin Klein’s<\/a> new #ProudInMyCalvins campaign<\/span>. Dig a little deeper, however, and you can see that they\u2019re anything but ordinary. Known for advocating for greater visibility for the LGBTQIA+ community (as well as each having voracious creative appetites) their Instagram pages are an honest\u2014and inspiring\u2014accounts of life as queer people in 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chella and MaryV\u2019s bold self-expression, both in the way they speak about their identities and the emotion they pour into their art, begs the question: \u201cis there an innate link between queerness and creativity?\u201d It\u2019s best to avoid generalisations, but both Chella and MaryV proudly draw inspiration from the LGBTQIA+ communities they are a part of, with Chella admitting: <\/span>\u201cMy biological and chosen family are my inspiration to persist and create.\u201d T<\/span>he impact of queer culture is even more tangible within MaryV\u2019s work, with her moving portrait series<\/span> You\u2019re The One Who Holds Me Tight<\/span><\/i> exploring queer people\u2019s connections to their chosen family.<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":85049,"id":85049,"title":"PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_3","filename":"PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_3.jpg","filesize":460562,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_3.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/pr20_chella_man_2400x1800_pr_3\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"pr20_chella_man_2400x1800_pr_3","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":0,"date":"2020-07-07 08:41:50","modified":"2020-07-07 08:41:50","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1500,"height":1125,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_3.jpg","thumbnail-width":128,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_3.jpg","medium-width":1500,"medium-height":1125,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_3.jpg","medium_large-width":1500,"medium_large-height":1125,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_3.jpg","large-width":1500,"large-height":1125,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_3.jpg","1536x1536-width":1500,"1536x1536-height":1125,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_3.jpg","2048x2048-width":1500,"2048x2048-height":1125,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_3.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":16,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_3.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1500,"wpvr_mobile-height":1125}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"10","caption":"Chella Man. Photo: Ryan McGinley. Courtesy of Calvin Klein. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

Made in collaboration with her sibling, writer <\/span>K\u00e9nta Ch\u2019umil<\/span><\/a>, these tender photographs capture intimate moments between friends, lovers, blood and non-blood relatives to show that family is what you make it, not who you\u2019re born with. \u201cA lot of queer people don\u2019t have their biological family to care for, love and respect them so they find a chosen family\u2014their best friends, or even just people they see in the club every Friday night,\u201d MaryV says of the project. \u201cIt\u2019s a really important part of queer culture to highlight, so that there isn\u2019t always this mainstream narrative of being born into a perfect family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ideas around visibility and representation are also central to what Chella does\u2014he first rose to prominence after documenting his transition as a trans masculine person via YouTube videos with titles like \u201cOne Year On Testosterone\u201dand \u201cHow Did I Know I Was Trans?\u201d. As he tells SLEEK, coming of age as a queer, deaf, Jewish person of colour, he found it hard to contextualise his identity with so few people looking like him in the media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, being so candid about his transition online stemmed from not wanting anyone else to go through the same struggles as he did early in life. \u201cAs a teenager, the one place I could find information about my identity and history was through social media and hashtags,\u201d Chella explains. \u201cSo I wanted to give back to the people who gave me the resources to understand who I really was and use the internet to be as open as possible about my transition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"instagram","code":"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BlI3Y-aAOWd\/","settings":{"width":"10"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

The current fashion and media landscape is starkly different to what Chella remembers growing up, a paradigm shift that he has been an active part of by modelling for major brands, fronting magazines and landing a TV role in DC Universe series <\/span>Titans<\/span><\/i>. But being asked to appear in the #ProudInMyCalvins campaign for Calvin Klein along with a number of famous faces including\u00a0<\/span>Tommy Dorfman, Ama Elsesser, Gia Woods, Jari Jones, Mina Gerges and Pabllo Vittar was still a serious \u201cpinch me\u201d moment. \u201cTo have a brand as big as Calvin Klein uplift someone like me, it goes to show how far the door has been cracked open by the people who have come before and the progress that all of our fight has made\u2014but also how much fight we have left to give.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":85052,"id":85052,"title":"PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_10","filename":"PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_10.jpg","filesize":482806,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_10.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/pr20_maryv_2400x1800_pr_10\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"pr20_maryv_2400x1800_pr_10","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":0,"date":"2020-07-07 08:42:06","modified":"2020-07-07 08:42:06","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1440,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_10.jpg","thumbnail-width":128,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_10.jpg","medium-width":1920,"medium-height":1440,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_10.jpg","medium_large-width":1920,"medium_large-height":1440,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_10.jpg","large-width":1920,"large-height":1440,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_10.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1152,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_10.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1440,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_10.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":16,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_MARYV_2400x1800_PR_10.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1920,"wpvr_mobile-height":1440}},{"ID":85050,"id":85050,"title":"PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_4","filename":"PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_4-e1594112697997.jpg","filesize":223441,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_4-e1594112697997.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/pr20_chella_man_2400x1800_pr_4\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"pr20_chella_man_2400x1800_pr_4","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":0,"date":"2020-07-07 08:41:55","modified":"2020-07-07 08:41:55","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1500,"height":1125,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_4-e1594112697997.jpg","thumbnail-width":128,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_4-e1594112697997.jpg","medium-width":1500,"medium-height":1125,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_4-e1594112697997.jpg","medium_large-width":1500,"medium_large-height":1125,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_4-e1594112697997.jpg","large-width":1500,"large-height":1125,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_4-e1594112697997.jpg","1536x1536-width":1500,"1536x1536-height":1125,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_4-e1594112697997.jpg","2048x2048-width":1500,"2048x2048-height":1125,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_4-e1594112697997.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":16,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR20_CHELLA_MAN_2400x1800_PR_4-e1594112697997.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1500,"wpvr_mobile-height":1125}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"MaryV Benoit and Chella Man. Photos: Ryan McGinley. Courtesy of Calvin Klein. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

But, as MaryV\u2019s creative practice and work for brands like Calvin Klein testifies, queer representation behind the camera is just as important as in front of it. \u201cI\u2019ve realised that in high school, a lot of the photographers I looked up to were men because they were more represented,\u201d she explains. \u201cAs a queer woman I use my work to reflect what I see in my life and in my relationships and to seek out and highlight people I identify with.\u201d Incorporating her queer friends and peers into her work, which is always lensed with love and care, she encourages spectators to find empathy with the LGBTQIA+ community, no matter their preconceptions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Creating in a cultural landscape still dominated by cis, heterosexual white men, Chella and MaryV are opening up different ways of being and seeing\u2014we just hope that, some day soon, how they navigate the world becomes the new normal.<\/span><\/p>\n

See the campaign video below:<\/em><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"