‘No one sees us’: shining a light on New York’s homeless LGBTQ+ community
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As part of the city’s Photoville survey, Dutch photographer Ernst Coppejans captures an often forgotten subcultureFor the Dutch photographer Ernst Coppejans, what really surprised him about making his photo collection From the Streets to the Heart – which delves into the lives of unhoused queer youth and young adults in New York City – was the immense resilience of his subjects. “These people are so strong, in spite of all the difficulties,” he told me. “It makes me emotional to think about it. They’re beat in every way possible, but they’re there and surviving, and they have hopes and dreams.”Coppejans’s photographic career is like a cornucopia of queer diversity. Past projects have documented the intersex experience, gay marriage in the Netherlands, the life experiences of queer elders, and transgender people of color, just to name a few. The photographer explained to me that one of the reasons he pours so much into this work is that, as a gay man, he believes it’s important for younger generations to learn about the people who came before. He wants to both document those prior generations as well as create an archive for future queer individuals. Continue reading...