A photo series depicting the world as it appears from the two windows of kreolex’ headquarters in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The project refers to a book by Xavier de Maistre Voyage autour de ma chambre (1794), and deals with the everyday reality of the so-called “queer closet”.
For four years kreolex employee Ruth Jenrbekova has been taking photographs from the two windows — one to the North and the other to the South — of her flat in Almaty, Kazakhstan. At the time she rarely left the house. Being a trans*femme in a patriarchal country means that even a casual going out could be risky, let alone making documentaries on the streets. The closeted life of post-Soviet queers is usually considered an annoying disadvantage. However, a strict limitation can be turned into a method. A proverbial queer closet can be a magical place.
The main intention of this photo series is to show how diverse can the world look from a window. While photographers travel far away seeking inspiration, the artistic potential of the everyday often remains unexplored. But the idea to reveal the stunning diversity in the all-the-same boring windowed landscape may only work when the series is relatively numerous. Hence the multiplicity of images…
more images here