Her ignorance, she said, made her mind an “empty white paper.” Elan, 26, who was born Nguyen Thanh Hai and has been shooting since 2006, doesn’t recall learning about homosexuality as a child. “If it doesn’t give me that feeling, then I don’t take the photo.” “When I take these photos, the most important thing is I have to believe in that moment,” Ms.
VIETNAMESE GAY MEN MAKING LOVE FREE
She sought private moments instead - where her subjects would be free from stares and criticism, and less inclined to dramatize their relationship. At a flower market, where she was photographing the two men together, onlookers stopped to ask why two men would hug. She watched how their posture changed in public. In fact, the idea of home became integral to the work. But after being around her subjects for a few days, she got a sense of their routines at home. “They were touching or they were caring,” Many of those she photographed were uncomfortable, and dramatized their situation when she pulled out her camera. To get started, she reached out to Nguyen Van Dung, a gay Vietnamese author who is well known in the country’s small L.G.B.T.Ĭommunity, and who was willing to help her find subjects. Maika Elan/MoST Hung and his boyfriend have been together two years. Had been foreigners, and most had thought of her as a foreigner, assuming that her work wouldn’t be seen by their families or friends. “In Vietnam, it’s very different, because I’m Vietnamese,” she said. Still, photographing there was more challenging for Ms.
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In August, the country’s first public gay pride parade took place in Hanoi. But its Communist government is considering recognizing same-sex marriage - a move that would make it the first Asian country to do so, despite past human rights issues and a long-standing stigma.
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Vietnam has historically been unwelcoming to same-sex relationships. “Step by step, image by image,” he added.Īs a photographer, he continued, “I believe she is strong enough to develop as a decisive force in current mutations in Vietnamese culture.” Elan is talented, “what she has which is more important is to accept the risk to become a significant political D’Agata, who remembered her work from the workshop in Cambodia, said via e-mail that while Ms. Mostly behind closed doors at home with gay Vietnamese couples.
VIETNAMESE GAY MEN MAKING LOVE SERIES
The result, a series of portraits called “ the Pink Choice,” is a powerfully intimate look at love, shot
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“I saw many different things around me,” she said via Skype from Hanoi, “and wanted to change minds.” So she decided to tackle the subject herself.
![vietnamese gay men making love vietnamese gay men making love](https://nomadicboys.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Best-instagrammers-in-the-world-1120x630.jpg)
Then she recalled the couples she had met in Cambodia, who were “really happy and very open” and far from the displeasing images she saw in Vietnamese media. They were stereotypical - even harsh - depictions of love. Many were shot from the back, and some wore masks. None of the pictures she saw revealed the faces of their subjects. While she had gay friends, she wasn’t sure if she felt passionate about the subject to continue.īut her feelings changed when she saw an exhibition there about Vietnam’s L.G.B.T. Elan put the portrait project aside when she returned to Hanoi. Needing a subject, she found Pink Choice, a Web site catering to same-sex couples traveling together - “kind of a Lonely Planet for gay and lesbian people,” she Elan, a young Vietnamese photographer, had traveled there for the Angkor Photo Festival to take a workshop with the Magnum photographer Antoine D’Agata. Were foreigners - told her she was welcome to take their portraits. She was surprised when most of the guests - many of whom Maika Elan didn’t know what to expect two years ago when she knocked on doors at a popular hotel for gay and lesbian couples in Siem Riep, Cambodia.