Switcheroos By Hana Pesut

Hana Pesut is a B.C photographer who has been doing an ongoing project where she takes pictures of couples before and after they switch into each other's clothes. It's pretty funny and cute but there's also this weird thing where it sort of takes you a long time to realize what's going on. And almost always the girls look better in the guys clothes and the guys look kind of sexy and confusing in the girls' clothes. Basically it's a cool idea and my own personal conclusion is that everyone looks way more interesting when they aren't trying to dress for their gender. Hana keeps updates about where and when she will be casting on her website, so if you are interested in getting involved you should check it out or contact her directly. I contacted her myself to ask her some questions about what she's doing and here is what she had to say.

How did the Switcheroos project get started?

I was camping with some friends and two of them were dressed really differently: one was wearing tie-dye and really colourful stuff and the other was wearing all black. We thought it would be funny for them to switch outfits and I decided to take before and after photos. After that I would see couples walking in the street and wonder what they would look like in each other's outfits. At first I was just asking friends to do it and then it was their friends and now I'm getting emails from people I've never met.

So you're pretty into cross-dressing?

If you wanna cross dress you should be able to cross dress! My mom said it was mandatory for girls to wear skirts in school when she was growing up and it's great to see how things have changed. We aren't so restricted. It's amazing that Andrej Pejic is modelling in women's clothing, he has totally changed ideas of cross-dressing in fashion.

Yeah! Andej Pejic is cool! Would you call the Switcheroos fashion photography?

I think it has inspired ideas for fashion photography and there are some fashion elements involved but it's not really fashion photography. If I had tons of money I would get more into fashion but it's really expensive so I try to ignore it.

You are doing some upcoming casting for this project in L.A. Do you often take this project on the road?

I want to take it everywhere, I just need someone to fund it! I've shot some Switcheroos in other places I've visited like Japan, New York, Montreal and Mexico.

You've got some pseudo-celebs in some of these pictures. I spy Jerry Hsu and Mark Hunter. Are these guys your friends?

I'm friends with Jerry's girlfriend so I met up with them while he was visiting her here in Vancouver. I met Mark maybe 4 or 5 years ago because my friend Jason gets him to take photos at a night that we DJ once or twice a year.

Looking at your other photos, I see you've been to Salvation Mountain. I've always wanted to go there.

It's a bizarre place! It pops up in the middle of nowhere. The day we went there was no one else around so it was creepy and exciting like a ghost town. There were tons of RVs just parked in random spots in the desert surrounding. Also, there were wet paint brushes sitting around so it felt like people were hiding from us?

So Switcheroos is an ongoing project. What does the future look like?

I'm working on a book right now and I would love to travel more. I've been receiving emails from people all over the world who want to participate and I'm trying to figure out a way to make that happen.