01 / Studio · Queer lives · Migration · Chiaroscuro
The Radical Act of Just Being
Queer refugees and migrants in the Netherlands
These portraits of queer refugees and migrants began with an idea of heroism that changed through conversation. Made in small studio spaces beside community gatherings, they attend to how people feel and choose to appear. Chiaroscuro and large prints invite close looking; joy and theatricality also belong. The series asks what we miss when a person is seen only through the label refugee.
15 photographs
Read about the project ↓These portraits grow from relationships that extend beyond the frame. Further portraits and the shared life around these encounters appear in Portraits at Q Kitchen, alongside a separate view of the wider community.
About the project
The individual beyond the label.
I began this series wanting to portray queer refugees and migrants as heroes. Many had lived through experiences I found extraordinary. But in our conversations, I discovered that the heroic image I imagined often had little to do with how they saw themselves.
My first opportunity to make portraits came at a Q Kitchen dinner followed by dancing. I photographed people enjoying themselves in a welcoming community. Those encounters changed the direction of the work. I began paying closer attention to how people felt and how they wanted to appear.
At subsequent gatherings, I created small studio spaces away from the activity, where we could talk and make photographs with a little more intimacy. I brought clothing, makeup and objects people could choose to use. These offered possibilities. Their meaning emerged through the person wearing them and the photograph we made.
As a gay man, I recognise something of the experience of hiding, choosing what to reveal and finding people with whom you can feel at ease. Those shared experiences create a starting point for conversation.
In these portraits, I use chiaroscuro to draw attention to the face, body and gesture, with little surrounding detail to direct the viewer's interpretation. Whenever possible, I print the photographs large. I want people to look closely and give the person before them their attention.
Many of the people I photograph faced rejection for being queer in their countries of origin, or had to keep that part of themselves hidden. Here in the Netherlands, some face rejection again, this time because they are seen as refugees. The Radical Act of Just Being takes its name from this tension: being yourself, finding belonging and being seen as a person beyond those labels.
My photography is a way of documenting queer life and making space for greater understanding and acceptance. For many of us, being visible follows years of concealing parts of ourselves. Making our community seen is my form of activism.
What do we miss when we see someone only as a ‘refugee’?
Threads through the work
