Martijn Gijsbertsen (photographer)
Tim van Erp (interviews)
Sebastiaan Kes (filmmaker and director of the Human Focus Foundation)

Amsterdam.

The first city where same-sex couples could legally marry, yet also a city where only 43 percent of young people today consider it normal for two people of the same sex to be in love. A city that, with its many queer spaces, is a natural host for World Pride 2026, yet also a city that has lost its title as the ‘gay capital’ to other destinations. A city that made headlines because rainbow flags were set on fire or torn apart, but also because local residents hung out those same flags en masse in a counter-protest. A city where LGBTQIA+ people from other parts of the Netherlands still flock to because they can be themselves and find like-minded people here, yet also a city where nearly half of the queer population feel unsafe on the streets, on public transport and when going out.

Queer Amsterdam paints a portrait of a changing city and a community forced to navigate visibility and resistance anew. This is explored through twelve portraits of individuals, born between 1954 and 2003. They look back and ahead, sharing their personal experiences of being queer in Amsterdam in the year 2026. Each of them was photographed twice - once in black-and-white and once in color - symbolizing the lighter and heavier aspects of their lives.

At a time when public debate is hardening, Queer Amsterdam hopes to offer a sense of softening. Without pretending to capture the entire LGBTQIA+ community through just twelve people, but by giving a voice to a seemingly random group of individuals sharing their personal stories.

Queer Amsterdam continues the conversation during two awareness nights, which will take place this autumn at various OBA (Amsterdam Public Library) locations. Would you like to attend? Please email info@stichtinghumanfocus.nl.

Queer Amsterdam is a project of 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 is made possible in part by the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst (AFK), NZ Sauna, Club chUrch, Free Willy, and the Human Focus Foundation.