Monday 17 August 2009

ELLIE'S FIRST COMMUNION

I can’t remember exactly when my interest on gypsy has started, but I feel like I always wanted to photograph them. One of my degrees piece, Kids, focus on a group on children living in a caravan site in a small Italian town.
Ellie is a gypsy child that lives in London. I met her and her family last spring, while I was trying to get in touch with any London based community. It was not easy to approach them and it’s still hard to get in touch with them, however they have declared me their official photographer. I have got the feeling this project will last for a very long time.
JOY

This project is inspired by the story of a homosexual man, born and raised in Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is punishable by death.
Anonymity is an important part of his life. That is why I decided to use the fictional name of Joy.

The marriage between Joy’s parents was arranged. His father went to Egypt to buy his mother “because women there are more beautiful and open then in Arabia Saudi”, as he told me.

At seventeen he won a scholarship and was forced by his parents to study civil engineering abroad. After three years however he found the courage to drop his studies and move to Florence to pursue his real passion, fashion design.

Alone and without the support of his family Joy felt the chance to express himself. “In Italy I had to start from the beginning, but it is in this time that I fell in love with myself”.

In 2007 he was selected to be part of a reality show contest as a fashion designer. This experience not only gave him professional experience but also allowed him to gain a bit of his family’s love back.

The story of Joy’s life is full of humiliation and isolation. Nevertheless in his words and his face I could not see a trace of anger. On the contrary, he never stopped smiling.

Joy has an androgynous face and a petite figure. Sometimes, as it is in his passport, he has to wear the traditional Arab dress, but he feels at ease with himself only when he wears woman clothes.

I decided to work with a set of macro portraits to let him remain anonymous. Also in this way I can tell about his his fragmentation and isolation.

He composed the background music himself.