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In Pakistan and Bangladesh, some people identify as Hijra, which means they have both male and female traits.

"Behind the ridicule and abuse, I know they were all thinking the same thing: 'How could a hijra be the mayor?'"

It presents her signature aesthetic — instinctively composed black-and-white images that always feel close yet never prying — and the themes and characters that recur in her oeuvre, like her friend Mona Ahmed, a hijra, or third-gender person, who lived in a Delhi cemetery.

Aruvi, a transgender person in Hyderabad, started a “transkitchen” with the help of three friends from the queer community, who cooked food and delivered it to the hijra community and other marginalized groups.

Curious to learn about the experiences of gender-diverse people around the world, she even moved to India to live with the Hijra community - a group sometimes referred to as India's "third sex" who have existed in Hindu society for 2,000 years.