#13

This space had been reserved for our thirteenth subject. Unfortunately, however, he had to withdraw. His openness about his sexual orientation had previously led to arguments within his family. Recently, those family tensions flared up again. Taking part in this project would have been like adding fuel to the fire. With this empty space, we want to offer him – and other LGBTQIA+ people in a similar situation – a word of encouragement.

Colofon

A big thank you goes to:
The people featured in our portraits – without you, Queer Amsterdam would never have come about:
Jackson Adney
Senn van Beek
Marco Dreijer
Fee Golin
Elio Heres
Dia Huizinga
Youssef Mahmoud
Noor Moussault
Ayla Çekin Satijn
Wolfgang Schreiber
Bryan Tsai
Eve Wientjens
and our thirteenth participant, who shared his story just as candidly as all the others.

Wendy Rommers (designer)
PPS Imaging (printer)
Amsterdam City Council

Queer Amsterdam is a project by the Human Focus Foundation and was created as a co-production by Martijn Gijsbertsen (photographer), Tim van Erp (interviewer) and Sebastiaan Kes (filmmaker and director of the Human Focus Foundation). Queer Amsterdam was made possible with the support of the AFK (Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst), Club chUrch, NZ Sauna, Free Willie and Stichting Human Focus.

Amsterdam is a city that is constantly changing, home to people of diverse
 backgrounds, beliefs and experiences.

Behind those differences lies something we share: the need to be seen, to love and to be ourselves. It is precisely when we take the time to really listen to one another that space is created for recognition. Not because we are the same, but because we have things in common as human beings. Perhaps hope lies within that sense of recognition. In small encounters, in open conversations, in the realisation that behind every story there is someone who is closer to us than we think.