The photography exhibition “Manas 2000-2024” by Ditte Haarløv Johnsen is at the centre of the 3rd edition of ULAYO Fest – LGBTQIA+ Week and draws attention for the profound and intimate way in which the protagonists are shown.
The Danish photographer has captured the feelings, attitudes and peculiar traits of the LGBTQIA+ community, as if it were a diary of the lives of “strangers” – the literal translation of queer -.
She has been working on this since 2000, when, she says, she met two youngsters on the street in Maputo. “They were blatantly homosexual. I had never seen that openly in Maputo. I spent the next two weeks with Ingracia and Antonieta, and their close circle of friends. I scratched the surface of their lives; the sisters, they called themselves.”
Thus, the images that can be seen in the gallery of the Franco-Mozambican Cultural Centre until August 3rd are particles of the photographer’s deep relationship with people and the city, made up of an expression that brings together fears, spontaneous freedom and that humanity that is missing from this group of people who find no space to exercise their existence and sexuality, without any kind of discrimination or reprimands that are sometimes even violent.
“Over the years, I’ve returned to photographing the sisters. We became part of each other’s lives. Many died along the way, and the photos became more and more about my own life in Maputo,” explains Ditte Haarlov Johnsen, about her work which has developed over that time as if it were a diary.
“The exhibition offers an authentic insight into an often-invisible world, celebrating those who live their lives with authenticity and courage, in search of acceptance and freedom,” reads the Ulayo Fest press release.
