FOTO-Talk

Talk with the photographers Maika Elan (Ho-Chi-Minh-City) and Julia Gunther (Amsterdam), presentation: Ben Miller (Board Schwules Museum Berlin).

In Cape Town, South Africa, black lesbians have created their own world with the Miss Lesbian Beauty Pageant in the township of Khayelitsha. Like ballroom culture in New York, these contests are queer reconstructions that shake the pillars of heteronormativity. In photographer Julia Gunther’s series Rainbow Girls, we see how black queers have defied homophobia and apartheid by creating a picturesque aesthetic in an ephemeral space. Gunther documents a marginalised group that is disproportionately exposed to sexual assault. But the power of these photographs lies in their emphasis on joy: the photo series is an act of resistance that invites black queer women to shed their traumas and show themselves in their full beauty and authenticity.

In the documentary work The Pink Choice by photographer Maika Elan, shot in the homes of her protagonists, queer people do something that is rarely the case in queer photography: they relax. Motivated by a desire to explore homosexuality in her native Vietnam, Elan’s photographs portray the everyday intimacy between queer people. In the privacy of their living spaces, her subjects follow the rhythm of their lives and loves. In contrast to narratives that focus on the pain, suffering and unhappiness of queer people, the photographs show people who are surviving and doing well.

The events will take place in English. Admission 8 € | reduced 5 €
The number of participants is limited, so we recommend booking an online ticket, which you can get here.

Photo left: From the series Rainbow Girls © Julia Gunther.
Photo right: From the series The Pink Choice © Maika Elan.

In Cooperation with: Heinrich Böll Stiftung e. V.

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