on Muxhe s and Kote s

Vittorio d´Onofri view on Muxhe´s and Gmb Akash on the Kote´s seem to be observing the survival and way of life of 2 minority comunities in Oaxaca and Bangladesh.

Vittorio: "In the town of Juchitan de Zaragoza (pop.80.000) I met the seven people who are the subjects of my photographs and was graciously invited into their homes hoping to enter the context in which they live. The Juchitec family, and above all the mother, embraces unconditionally her homosexual (Muxhe) son. Here the transsexual is fully integrated into the social fabric.
My project focuses on their daily life, and in particular on their family and work environment, which is where most of their days unfold. These men simply want to be women. They embody the very nature of femininity."

Akash: "Shame Akash ! Don’t show us these pictures. It’s a sin even to look at them.”

This was the reaction of Jhomur, my sister-in-law, to my story about a group of homosexual men living in my neighborhood. Her reaction is typical. Religious beliefs and cultural standards of morality make homosexuality an unacceptable abomination in Bangladesh. The kote, as gays are called locally, are ostracized and thus live together in small communities. Yet social stigma is not enough to dent their unshakeable faith in life."

Here are two projects that use photography as evidence of these subcultures and at the same time we have two photographers that believe that to document this will in some way create a social concious about the the gay and transexual community.


http://www.gmb-akash.com/homos.html

To look inside

Last year i came across Eduardo Gils project Paisajes/Landscapes www.eduardogil.com/tabla%20de%20fotos/paisajes/grilla.htm
in which he asked people to close their eyes and think of the most beautiful landscape they´ve ever seen and during this he´d make a portrait of them.

Earlier this year i came across the work of Benjamin Donaldson titled Summerland: "Photographs of subjects hypnotized to believe they are experiencing the most beautiful landscape they can imagine." http://www.jenbekman.com/artists/benjamin_donaldson/

Then another body of work that pretends to reach inside the subject was Monika Ruzanskys work The Mirror: "I want to to put emphasis on self regard rather than on the relationship the subject has with the photographer. In this way, by multiplying our image i encourage people to start an inner dialog with their own reflection"
www.monicaruzansky.com/

Then today, a work college Domingo Valdivieso pointed out the work of Igal Jusidman The Expression of the Unexpression: "For this project I tried to minimize the effect of these forces: I took the subjects out of their habitat and into the studio; Clothing was eliminated so it wouldn’t provide information about the subjects; I standardized their pose choosing the simplest and most natural form; and finally I led each one in a meditation as to relax mind and body.

Standardizing, the photographer stops interpreting the subjects; the subjects cannot appear as they wish to be seen, as they have fixed instructions (on the pose for example); and with the meditation they seize to think in the one they believe they are, and just be.

What’s left is the expression of the unexpression."

www.igal.com.mx/slides/expression_of_the_unexpression.htm

The four finally use the portrait as their way to materialize their idea, and it is the idea that makes them different even though they are alike visually.