3 minute read
PHOTOGRAPHY
Violet enjoys magic and anime
Doing Bristol proud
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This time last year local photographer Karen Freer began documenting LGBTQ+ faces of Bristol via portraiture to help represent and empower the community –and this month you can view the whole collection
El is the creator of It’s A BAME’S Life
Leo transitioned at the end of his school years Images : Karen Freer T here are, of course, still parts of the city where I feel anxiety around holding my wife’s hand, but I have always felt welcome in Bristol,” says photographer Karen Freer (she/her), who fell in love with the creation of images as a child when she experimented with film photography; switching to video in her teens, and then back again. Her latest passion project – started in summer 2020, between cycle rides, Netflix sessions, gaming stints and spreadsheets for her day job as a media planner and buyer for cycling brands – builds on a clear goal shared by many in the city.
For key to the simple act of holding hands, and the expression of a spectrum of identities, never being an issue again for any queer person, wherever they live, is visibility and awareness for the community, and more projects like Karen’s LGBTQ+ Faces of Bristol.
To this end, and working with a team of volunteers to ensure diversity both in front of and behind the camera, Karen involved rights campaigners Consortium, the Voice & Influence Partnership, local independent film lab Photographique, Silverpan Labs, Ilford Film, community history group OutStories Bristol, and Bristol Pride – look out for one of Karen’s portraits on the Pride art trail.
Participants have included Violet (she/her; transgender, bisexual, asexual) who has lived in Bristol for nine years, enjoying a passion for magic and anime; Leo (he/him, trans, pansexual), who transitioned at the end of school, having got onto testosterone early and had top surgery on the NHS before the age of 20. Sharifa (she/her, polyamorous) also features in the portrait series, focusing on her passion for football, podcasting (check out The Queer Blackity Black Joy Podcast) and Kiki Bristol, a space she co-founded for QTIPOC (queer, transgender, intersex, people of colour) to meet, greet, eat, discuss and dance.
A wish to have been able to show their younger selves that it’s okay to be who you are meant Ellie (she/her, lesbian) and Lydia (she/her, bisexual) were more than happy to help Karen raise awareness for society’s LGBTQ+ stratum, and associated oppression, while portraying the love within the community and “how it can mould people into the greatest version of themselves”.
Karen spoke with and photographed podcaster El (she/they, queer, pansexual) –creator of It’s A BAME’s Life which discusses, each week, via all major platforms, issues and topics affecting the BAME LGBTQ+ community, as well as talking to the charities, organisations and individuals working towards change. “Being part of the community gives me so much joy; that’s why this year I coordinated the Europe edition of Global Black Pride which aired virtually in June,” said El, who is part of Sing Out Bristol choir and LGBTQ+ choir. “Follow me [Twitter and Instagram: @itsabameslife] as I create, curate and host various projects under the banner of Pride in various intersections.”
Bristol newcomer Ángela (she/her, ecosexual, bisexual), who moved to the city just before the lockdown last spring, is passionate about nature, sustainability, wild swimming, growing veg and flowers and spending time ‘being wild’ in the outdoors with her van. Already a forest school practitioner, an ecopsychological and nature connection facilitator, as well as a Spanish tutor who teaches language lessons outdoors, Ángela is also training to become an ecotherapist just to add another string to her bow. Her other passions lie in feminism, embodiment, sexualities and intimacy, and menstruation –the latter another subject of her studies. “I did a PhD on menstruation and would like to continue developing this further in a different setting,” she says, “and through different projects within my ecopsychological practice. I haven’t planned anything for Pride as flexibility and spontaneity are crucial for me, but I’ll be writing on LGBTQ+ (especially ecosexuality) on my Instagram account for sure, in order to keep making visible and honouring diversity.”
Aisha (she/her, gay), who works for a TV production company, and wife Lauren (she/her, queer), who works for the emergency services in Bristol, were keen to have photos taken before the birth of their child so Karen squeezed in a session just
before the lockdown at the end of 2020. ➲