Androgyny scares, baffles and fascinates at the same time. Androgynous people live between the polarities of a binary society: visually they fit neither the female nor male stereotype. Their dual natures coexist in each world like cross-faded images contained in one frame. Separating them into two classic genders makes this polarity visible and present while mirroring back the viewer's norms and stereotypes.
Winner of the 2016 PRIDE PHOTO AWARD - 1st 'Insiders / Outsiders' www.pridephotoaward.org
2016 Audience Award www.pridephotoaward.org/2016/10/22/
Press
NRC: Man of vrouw?
NRC: Er is zoveel meer dan man en vrouw, erken dat in de wet
GUP Magazine: It's all about Freedom: Pride Photo Award and Exhibition
RTLnieuws.nl: Lust, verdriet en angst: zo leven homo’s en transgenders wereldwijd
Queer.de: Die Inszenierung von Geschlechterrollen
Newsweek Japan: Sexual and Gender Diversity
NBC News: International Photo Contest Highlights LGBTQ Diversity
transgenderinfo: Yanovska wint publieksprijs Pride Photo
IHILA LGBT Heritage: Pride Photo Award
IHLIA LGBT Heritage: Oekraïense fotograaf wint publieksprijs succesvolle editie Pride Photo Award
Marijke Vonk: Gender complexity: Male/Female/Other
GaySite.nl: Winnaar publieksprijs Pride Photo Award
Selective Perseption explores how differently people are perceived depending on partner standing next to them. In each pair of photographs, one of the couples is real, another one is staged. The project plays with viewer's expectations of sexuality and gender roles.
As the conflict in Eastern Ukraine continues, Catherine Chapman and I decided to look closer at struggles of LGBTQ community in Ukraine. The result is this story about a Shelter, a new home in Kyiv for LGBTQ people who have no other place to go.
NBC OUT: Ukrainian LGBTQ Shelter a Home for ‘People Who Have Lost Everything’
Text by Catherine Chapman
"In a four-bedroom apartment found among a row of typical Eastern bloc-styled buildings in one of Kiev’s sleeping districts, a group of strangers from around Ukraine is making a fresh start in a place they now consider home.
They call their newly acquired residence “The Shelter,” a safe space where they are free to be themselves — a mix of ages, backgrounds and genders congregating under one roof, because their sexual orientation left them with nowhere else to go.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/
Nik Litvinov, 22, moved into The Shelter earlier this year for a couple of months.
"Sixty-five people have lived in The Shelter since it opened in mid-2016, and most of those living there during a visit earlier this month were from the eastern areas of the country where fighting is still taking place."
Slavik Smirnov, 28, has lived in the The Shelter since June this year.
The LGBT Shelter in Kyiv is the first place where its residents get a feeling of belonging to a comminity.
Some find a new home there, where they are accepted for who they are.
Some residents find their first real friends at The Shelter, for they have never been truly accepted by their friends or families before.
Most of the residents find it to be the first place they feel free and open about their sexuality.
Nik is excited to move in with his boyfiend in Moscow soon.
Slavik considers The Shelter a perfect place to start ones life over.
Nik and Avis (who didn't want to give her real name) are optimistic about the future of the LGBTQ community in Ukraine.
"It will take time, for sure. But the shift is happening already," says Nik.
Slavik feels much more secure and safe since he came out as gay. Now he lives openly and is not afraid of violence or discrimination against him.
"I feel more powerful now, since I'm not afraid of exposure anymore."
Androgyny and abstract thoughts about absurdity of the term “femininity” are the central ideas of this ongoing project. Coupling bodies with mundane objects or putting them in abstract settings, I explore how it feels and what it means to be a woman, the complexity of emotions connected to absurd and unrealistic expectations of the womanhood.
About Birds shows several snapshots, organised in a new composition, creating something new from known and ordinary forms.
"About India" originated in January 2011 during a two-month journey to India, and was presented for the first time in June 2012 as part of a group exhibition on the topic of being alien.
Originally I hail from Ukraine. Before I turned twelve, my family and I had to move a lot due to my parents' work. Upon turning 22, I left on my own for Germany to pursue university studies, and can therefore relate really well to what being alien means.
But the experience I had travelling by myself in India cannot be compared to anything. It's not just the people and their traditions that are different; the entire environment is being perceived differently, and the environment itself perceives you in a different way. You cannot simply drift with the current like in Central Europe and blend in with the crowd, you are seen as exotic and receive attention accordingly. It's new, it's alien, and you must learn to deal with it.
I took my time and let the country influence me - as I have always done in any society where I was new and alien. You must be ready to take off the Western world goggles and approach this country and its people attentively, with an open mind. This way, you can get to know the people, their families and lifestyle. You can drink chai with the sellers in a market place, visit new places by adventuresome train rides, listen to foreign music and learn to love it, you can forgive the screaming apes for waking you up in the morning. In short, you open up for all things new and fascinating, and one day, when you let it, when you don't shut yourself from it, you feel that you have finally arrived, that you're home... you are no longer alien.
After living six years abroad, I became an outsider in my own home. Documenting my visit in 2010 was an act of visual exploration of my emotions and feelings of forgotten childhood memories.
In my art as in my wedding photography, I focus on aesthetics and genuineness.
I work with natural light and vanish in the crowd to be able to capture the atmosphere and feeling of an event.
You will not be forced to pose or to “play up” to the camera. On the contrary, you can relax and enjoy your day, while I beautifully capture it for you.
Please get in touch to check availability and to get an accurate price for your event.
