In her long term documentation, Shirin Bhandari makes friends with the Golden Gays, a group of elderly drag performers in Manila. Her intimate snapshot portraits and dressing room scenes initiate a visual and emotional understanding for the lives, relationships and community of her protagonists. Shirin Bhandari creates an exceptional visual narrative of glamour, mortality, ageism and acceptance. Despite the Philippines lack of programs to secure health and general welfare for the elderly, each Golden Gays show provides a few hours of respite from the harsh struggles of living in Manila. The sustainable joy these shows reward to the performers can be felt throughout this series of images. »Despite the odds against the Golden Gays, seen or overlooked because of their age, the show goes on.«
In ihrer Langzeitdokumentation freundet sich Shirin Bhandari mit den Golden Gays an, einer Gruppe älterer Drag-Performer in Manila. Mit intimen Schnappschussporträts und Garderobenszenen schafft die Fotografin visuelles und emotionales Verständnis für das Leben, die Beziehungen und die Gemeinschaft ihrer Protagonist*innen. Shirin Bhandari kreiert ein außergewöhnliches Narrativ über Glamour, Sterblichkeit, Altersdiskriminierung und Akzeptanz. Obwohl es auf den Philippinen an Programmen mangelt, die die Gesundheit und das allgemeine Wohlergehen älterer Menschen sichern, bietet jede Golden Gays-Show den Teilnehmenden ein paar Stunden Erholung vom rauen Überlebensalltag in Manila. Die nachhaltige Freude, die diese Shows den Performenden schenken, ist in der gesamten Bilderserie zu spüren. »Trotz der widrigen Umstände, und obwohl die Golden Gays oft aufgrund ihres Alters gesehen – oder übersehen werden, geht die Show für sie weiter.«
»Together« is an evolving series of portraits. Guillets approach is both introspective and contemplative. With her work, the artist questions and criticizes the »sentimental norm«: traditional definitions of love relationships.
In this series of portraits, Camila Falcão researches gender and sexuality in an anti-patriarchal and collaborative approach. Her protagonists are members of a young non-binary community in Brazil. These Portraits are taken in home environments with natural light and always on eye level with both the protagnists and the audience. Camila Falcão shows a diverse range of queer people and bodies.
Joey Solomon’s influences are both academic and medical. As an openly gay man with mental disorders who has survived an internal pelvic tumor, his images advocate for invisible, internal highs and lows.
Meghan Marin describes her work Thinking of U (2020-present) as a „testament to the love and strength my queer friends give to me and our chosen families.“ Her portraits are simple and intimate, their authenticity and warmth are fueled by a collaborative approach.
In Audiovisual Cuir, Mia Vasquez documents the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ people as well as her own state of being. She shows us „what it means to exist and live in the social climate of Dominican Republic: Filled with religious and traditional views but slowly seeing a destabilization of the cis-heteronormative binary.
The term »rose-tinted glasses« is often used to describe the perspective of people who see elements of the past as better and superior. Queer goggles are a whole different kind of »rose-tinted glasses.«
Sarah Mei Herman started this long-term project in 2014 during an artist residency on the Chinese coastal city island of Xiamen. Rather than focusing on cultural differences, Sarah Mei Herman explores aspects that are universally recognizable: the importance of friendship and love.
In a reduced aesthetic influenced by the new German photography, Sabrina Weniger lets us participate in a phase of her protagonist’s life. Through the collaborative approach, we feel Chieh’s calm determination to align the outer body with the inner body.
In her long term documentation, Shirin Bhandari makes friends with the Golden Gays, a group of elderly drag performers in Manila. Her intimate snapshot portraits and dressing room scenes initiate a visual and emotional understanding for the lives, relationships and community of her protagonists.
Simon Emond set out to meet queer communities living in remote areas far away from large cities. His grainy, blurred and almost abstract images illustrate a personal journey that leads in different directions at the same time: Outwards, inwards, into the dark and towards the light, up to the sky and down to earth.
Ziyu Wang questions the societal pressure on men to perform their masculinity. He skillfully accomplishes this through the staged visualization of expectations that his father has of him. In „Go get´em, boy!“ the audience takes on the role of the elders of the family to examine the images of manhood Ziyu Wang has created for his father.
