Vans collaborates with the Where Love Is Illegal project to share powerful LGBTQI+ stories of self-discovery within a new exhibition.
In the spirit of sharing stories of self-discovery and identity, Vans have collaborated with Where Love Is Illegal, a Witness Change project, for the first instalment of a fellowship, which aims to support LGBTQI+ photographers and artists, and their aims to spotlight documentary work of personal stories of identity.
This year’s fellowship winners Anton Shebetko, Camille Farrah Lenain, and Kwasi Darko have come together to capture individuals with stories that comment on being LGBTQI+ and Muslim, the Ukrainian understanding of being queer and Ghana’s community fighting for safe spaces for queer people. The exhibition, open to the public throughout the whole month of June, will be showcasing all three artists’ work, curated in partnership with Vans within their Covent Garden flagship store, prompting visitors to connect with themselves, and the photographers’ personal stories.
Camille Farrah Lenain’s work has been inspired by her Algerian uncle, growing up gay and the acceptance within her own family. Hearing a radio conversation with the first openly gay imam in France Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, the photographer got inspiration to discover more stories surrounding the composition of identity in being queer and muslim, and what their own experiences have shaped both of those components within. “One thing I would like to show with this project is that it is possible to be queer and Muslim, and to remove the stigma that both can’t exist” expressed Lenain at the opening event of the exhibition.
Another fellow artist, Kwasi Darko has explored the current progress of the LGBTQI+ movement in Ghana, and his work photographs activists within their most sacred safe spaces, alongside nature and the reflective feeling of being one with yourself. Within his work, Darko has challenged the current events of police force openly shutting down some of the safe spaces and organisations built in the country. “There was a point where I started photographing my friends, after being actively pursued by the police force, erasing the physical spaces amongst the country. However, this project is more about facing those difficulties, and finding the community, bringing it even closer than before, when facing adversity” he expressed further.
The third fellowship photographer, Anton Shebetko has worked within capturing the queer Ukrainian community, and the basis of his imagery showcases the unstable nature of the LGBTQI+ movement across the country. His initial plans of this exhibition completely changed, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prompting him to focus on Ukrainian queer individuals residing in Poland, Germany and The Netherlands. “I aimed to find queer individuals who have had the experience of living in Ukraine, who are now living elsewhere. My conversations with them divided into chapters, including people’s experience battling war whilst being queer, and their overall experience being raised there, sharing their honesty with me.”
The Vans x Where Love Is Illegal exhibition is open and free to the public until June 30th within the Vans Flagship Covent Garden store at 5/7 Neal St, London, WC2H 9PU.
