I’m drawn to the strength of people’s characters. Their passion for life and love inspires me. I’m looking for real feelings, sincere and pure emotions. Something that is beyond words, something metaphorical.
In my series Ordinary People I explore the ability of ordinary people to enjoy the moment and value the happiness and joy of everyday´s life despite the blatant homophobia in Russian legislature, politics, media and the Russian church. My work aims to give the international community a deeper insight into the Russian LGBTQ+ community in order to start discussions and debates and to take steps towards a more tolerant society in Russia. I believe that our world needs other perspectives and solutions. This project is a continuation of my effort to always find something positive even in the worst situations.
Ksenia Kuleshova was born in 1988. She graduated with a Bachelor in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover. She participated in the World Press Photo Foundation Joop Swart Masterclass 2018 and the 6th annual New York Portfolio Review. In 2020 she joined the Canon Ambassador Programme. She was featured by the British Journal of Photography as one of 31 women to watch out for in 2018. Her work has been exhibited and published internationally, including in The New York Times, National Geographic, Wall Street Journal, DIE ZEIT, GEO France, and others.
The ban on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors” was signed into the Russian federal law by Vladimir Putin in June 2013. This “anti-gay law” has severely restricted the lives of LGBTQ+ people from artistic expression to activism to political discussion and HIV prevention. The constitutional reform bill 2020 bans same-sex marriage.
In her series Ordinary People Ksenia Kuleshovas documents LGBTQ+ people in their peaceful queer safer spaces, far away from street demonstrations and police brutality. Their gazes mostly avoid the camera, as if the photographer was merely present. The true force of Kuleshovas imagery lies in the tenacity of her protagonists. They turn joy, intimacy and love into a weapon of peaceful resistance.
In her series Ordinary People Ksenia Kuleshovas documents LGBTQ+ people in their peaceful queer safer spaces, far away from street demonstrations and police brutality. Their gazes mostly avoid the camera, as if the photographer was merely present. The true force of Kuleshovas imagery lies in the tenacity of her protagonists. They turn joy, intimacy and love into a weapon of peaceful resistance.
My parents rejected me because of my homosexuality. I could escape from the violent relationships of their home and grew up with my maternal grandmother Clemencia. My grandmother knew how to raise me through fantasy and her unconditional love, despite the rejection of most of my family.
XYX-XO is a sexual chromosome I imagined. It can be endlessly reinvented. Out of all control, it allows infinite exploration of the self. The topic of this project is to question the notion of gender and identity through transformation. I approach it as a dialogue with the models. They are free to represent themselves the way they wish.
In China, every little thing seems to be under control. A direct control, through cameras, millions of eyes watching you, and an indirect one, via traditions and information control. Homosexuality is neither criminalised nor considered as a mental disease anymore. Still. “I’d love to, but I can’t be part of your project”.
I met most of my early subjects in 2014, while photographing queer nightlife in New York. In 2017, I began to bring the people I had met into my studio, at daylight. Since then, my portraiture has remained centered on the queer community. Part of my interest in photographing this community stems from being a part of the community myself. These are people and spaces that I know best.
I’m drawn to the strength of people’s characters. Their passion for life and love inspires me. I’m looking for real feelings, sincere and pure emotions. Something that is beyond words, something metaphorical.
In my series Ordinary People I explore the ability of ordinary people to enjoy the moment and value the happiness and joy of everyday´s life despite the blatant homophobia in Russian legislature, politics, media and the Russian church.
In 2014 I started to take intimate portraits of young queer people. As a lesbian woman, I am very interested in meeting likeminded people. My intention is to show them as they really are, building an intimate space, forged in their image, where they can express freely.
This project investigates the concept of ordinary monstrosity, unravelling the boundaries between what is thought of as normal and abnormal. Since the 19th century the staging of “freaks” was essential and images were manipulated to play a vital role in reinforcing the norm.
The day I confided in someone about my sexuality, they took my story and spread it around for fun. This both hurt my feelings and tainted my identity. My trust became gossip. I decided to turn to my childhood friends, my old teachers and even strangers that I had never met before.
For almost 40 years, the Muxe community of Oaxaca has struggled to be visible and win their own spaces. The Muxes, beyond considering themselves men or women, have transcended the idea of gender to identify themselves as a third gender, and they are always in search of beauty.
Research has shown that elders in the LGBTQ+ community are more likely to experience loneliness, exclusion, and fear of turning to health and welfare services. The men pictured in this series, all over seventy, identify themselves as gay and live in Israel.
As a straight photographer I felt drawn to this subject because the number of LGBT political refugees in Belgium is fast growing. These people had no choice but to leave their countries of origin, so I wanted to explore the realities they left behind.
This selection of single images are taken from various projects from 2016 to 2020 sharing the common theme of self invention of unapologetic queer identities. These are portraits of outsiders as icons. Queer individuals who choose to construct their image to be visibly queer by blurring and challenging the boundaries of gender expression, sexuality and society’s expectations thereof.
