ANDREA DE FRANCISCIS
Italy

Portrait of R.
 

R. is a student from Kashmir, the disputed territory in Northern India, theatre of a long-standing, unresolved conflict. R., like many Kashmiris of her age, grew up during the militancy and the brutal repression of the Indian security forces, in a conservative context with strict segregation of the sexes and where sexuality is mainly lived in secret.

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R. identifies as lesbian, a word that she first became aware of while reading a book. She never heard this word, so she searched for the term but there was no correspondence in her language, in Koshur. She eventually found it in English: it was the definition of herself, to which she had never given a name although she always felt “different”.

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Her family never accepted her identity, she feels caught between two fires: her roots and her identity – her inner sense of self. The intersections of her identity as a lesbian, as a woman, as a Kashmiri, as a Muslim, as a low-caste show how oppression works on different levels. She asked not to show her face and use her name, as she feared her father could come to know and harm her.

@andreadefranciscis

NIAMH SMITH
Ireland

Home, Soft Focus Life, Cocooning

This portrait is part of a series titled Home, Soft Focus Life.

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The scene is a transformation of the everyday banal and isolation felt in an obscure time of uncertainty. An existence recently experienced by many people in Ireland and abroad. This ordinary image paints with feeling and inspires the emotion.

95-year-old grandfather Eugene was photographed from an intimate distance, a spiritual experience awakening moments of reflection during a macabre time.

www.niamh-smith.com