Empowering photos uplifting indigenous youth from the Brazilian Amazon:
© Like a River 2022 courtesy Loose JointsWhat you're looking at is body art made from a fruit you don't eat. It’s very, very bitter; the juice is dark, dark black. They use that juice to create tattoos, though they're impermanent. I was covered in these when I was there. People with those tattoos areland activists: they go to the capital city, Manaus, to chain themselves to trees to protest deforestation.
There’s also a photo of a girl with short bleached hair, sitting in a rocking chair, with face paint. I went to hang out before taking pictures, and she took me aside and we went for a long walk together. She said, ‘I heard you're photographing gay people… I'm a lesbian, but I'm not totally out’. Her father is very renowned in the community: one of the chiefs. And she's like, ‘I cannot be out because I'd be a disgrace to my father’.
Another example — it’s actually probably the most shared photo from the series — is a photograph of a drag queen wearing a cowboy hat.He is incredible. I met Wendell at the very beginning of the series. I was eating dinner alone in this little place, and he came up and was like, ‘I'm a drag queen, and you're going to photograph me on Thursday; I'll be there at one o’clock’. He showed up with this costume and makeup. We became good friends, because Wendell is just a fucking trip.
He loves doing drag. However, he lives with his mother and she has a small business in the town square. Wendell feels he can't perform because if the community sees him as a, they won't buy from his family. He was really distraught about this. His mom knows that he's gay, and knows that he does drag, but it's just about the community's response. He takes care of her and doesn't want her to lose money.
Absolutely. For me, that actually is very symbolic of why I felt such a deep connection, creating a family in this little town. We're still all on WhatsApp chats together; we check in every couple days. It's a testament to the queer community. When I was younger, I used to think that art and photography could be an advocacy tool to really create systematic change, at a policy level and human rights level.
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