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2018
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22
KAREN ELSON ON THE MODEL AS THE MUSE

KAREN ELSON ON THE MODEL AS THE MUSE

Published on October 22, 2018October 22, 2018 by LIBERATUM

A film by Liberatum. Presented by illy. Edited by Caravan Brothers. Music by William Close.

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liberatum

Global Multimedia and Multidisciplinary Cultural Organization Empowering and Inspiring Minds to Promote Social Change and Raise Consciousness

𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐋𝐄𝐀

𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐘

We are either going to have a future where women lead the way to make peace with the Earth or we are not going to have a human future at all.

Globalized industrialized food is not cheap: it is too costly for the Earth, for the farmers, for our health. The Earth can no longer carry the burden of groundwater mining, pesticide pollution, disappearance of species and destabilization of the climate. Farmers can no longer carry the burden of debt, which is inevitable in industrial farming with its high costs of production.

It is incapable of producing safe, culturally appropriate, tasty, quality food. And it is incapable of producing enough food for all because it is wasteful of land, water and energy. Industrial agriculture uses ten times more energy than it produces. It is thus ten times less efficient.

As usual, in every scheme that worsens the position of the poor, it is the poor who are invoked as beneficiaries.
- Vandana Shiva

Photographer 📸 @poesiacomelos

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐀

Daniel Obasi is a Nigerian photographer, stylist and art director currently based in Lagos. His works aim to advance discourse surrounding livelihood in Nigeria, with a particular focus on Lagos’ queer community. Inspired by Afrofuturism and old cinema, Obasi uses colour and narrative to capture the communities of his choosing through an idealised, timeless lens. His work has achieved international acclaim, and he has recently published his debut photo book, Beautiful Resistance.

The project came to fruition amidst the #EndSARS movement of 2020. Supporters called for the disbanding of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit of the Police notorious for citizen abuse in Nigeria. A viral video allegedly showing SARS officers killing a young man sparked a series of mass protests. Protesters were met with violence, and unarmed demonstrators were shot at Lekki Toll Bridge.

In this photobook, Obasi pays homage to the power of Nigerian protest, to resilience and resistance. Obasi told Dazed the photo book is “an ode to the Queer minority community in Nigeria and young Nigerians who stood up against police brutality and political corruption.” Collaborating with Louis Vuitton, Obasi aims to provoke us to think deeper about how (or if) art can inspire change within the political landscape globally.

Released a few years after these events, the country's youth and queer community suffer at the hands of the state. Yet as the presidential election approaches, the strength of resistance and community, displayed beautifully by Obasi, could pave the way to fairer futures. We caught up with him to learn more about this project and the communities that inspired it. - Isobel Gorman-Buckley, Metal Magazine

Photographer 📸 @iamdanielobasi

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐅

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐎𝐌

Human evolution has two steps -
from being somebody to being nobody;
and from being nobody to being everybody.
This knowledge can bring
sharing and caring throughout the world.

I tell you, deep inside you is a fountain of bliss, a fountain of joy. Deep inside your center core is truth, light, love, there is no guilt there, there is no fear there. Psychologists have never looked deep enough.

Activity and rest are two vital aspects of life. To find a balance in them is a skill in itself. Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have. Finding them in each other - activity in rest and rest in activity - is the ultimate freedom.
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Photographer 📸 @thevisualchef 👩🏾 @albino__unusual

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐌𝐀 𝐓𝐇𝐀

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐌𝐀 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐀

In India we're fighting to retain a wilderness that we have. Whereas in the west, it's gone. Every person that's walking down the street is a walking bar code.

You can tell where their clothes are from, how much they cost, which designer made which shoe, which shop you bought each item from. Everything is civilized and tagged and valued and numbered and put in it's place.

Whereas in India, the wilderness still exists - the unindoctrinated wilderness of the mind, full of untold secrets and wild imaginings.

- Arundhati Roy

Photographers 📸 Daniel Berehulak, Deepak Sharma, Ismail Ferdous, Parul Sharma, Greg Vore

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐒

Live quietly in the moment and see the beauty of all before you. The future will take care of itself.

Be as simple as you can be; you will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and happy your life can become.

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
- Paramhansa Yogananda

Photographer 📸 @kalogenic

𝐀𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒

White Shoes is a collection of self-portraits taken in locations around New York that were central to the city’s once pivotal – and now largely obscured and unacknowledged – involvement in the slave trade. Nona Faustine depicts herself at the sites of slave auctions, burial grounds, slave-owning farms, and the coastal locations where slave ships docked, posing nude apart from a pair of white high-heeled shoes. Documenting herself in places where history becomes tangible, Faustine acts as a conduit or receptor, in solidarity with people whose names and memories have been lost but are embedded in the land.

Through quiet but defiant self-representation, Faustine responds to a history of depiction of Black people that is shaped by subjugation, phrenology, and pseudo-science. Her complex large-format images refer and respond to a range of sources including daguerrotypes of slaves and photographs commissioned by naturalists, while her nudity — expressive of fearless self-possession as well as vulnerability – subverts the legacy of Black and female nudes in Western art. Running throughout the images, the talismanic white shoes that give the series its name suggest the many adaptations to dominant White culture that were and are still demanded of people of colour.

At once historical and speculative, White Shoes confronts the relationship between the visible and invisible, between what is displayed and what is kept from view. @nonafaustine

Photographer 📸 @nonafaustine

𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐁𝐔𝐍

𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐁𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄

Ryan Pfluger’s new book of portraits – Holding Space: Life and Love Through a Queer Lens – is a a hybrid of non-fiction, memoir and photobook. @ryanpfluger

The cover image in Ryan Pfluger’s new book, Holding Space: Life and Love Through a Queer Lens, is a portrait of Jari and Deniz. Staring directly into the lens, they stand thigh-deep in an overgrown meadow, holding each other. The land around them is sprawling, lush and open. It hums with the warm glow of the sunrise. As we’ve come to expect from Pfluger’s portraiture: beauty is abundant.

“Being publicly in love with Deniz has come with its challenges,” Jari writes. “Things we can’t control. But it could never measure up to the genuine and deep-souled beauty that has come out of this relationship. There is a unique comfort being in a relationship with another trans person. The comfort in knowing that my body and how I choose to express my gender are never up for question. That I am never stunted in my process of exploring, and my whole self is welcomed with loving arms.”

Manifesting as a hybrid of non-fiction, memoir and photobook, Holding Space is a moving reflection on the challenging reality of intersectional relationships. Published by Princeton Architectural Press in November, the book traces the stories of 100 queer couples across the United States. The result is a rollercoaster of emotions, illuminating the tension between public and private, how the conditions of a relationship can be safe and hostile simultaneously, and how life’s biggest lessons are often learned the hard way. - British Journal of Photography

Photographer 📸 @ryanpfluger

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐁𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘

I was born in a society that taught me that being fat was a synonym of being ugly. Having a big body meant that I should cover it, I should wear certain clothes in order to look skinny, and even look skinny in pictures. It's really hard to feel beautiful when people feel free to comment on how your body looks and how much you need to change it. It made me feel sorry about my complexion.

Social media can be very toxic when it comes to body standards, but it was really nurturing for me because I found the representation that I lacked in my childhood; seeing beautiful plus sized models and actresses made me aware of the beauty that I own.

It is hard and it is an ongoing process but today, I love my body and I love myself. Most importantly, I don’t feel sorry for doing so.
- @sabrina.gq

Photographer 📸 @mholcph 👧🏻 @sabrina.gq

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐎

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐂𝐓𝐒, 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐒

Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality...One can't possess reality, one can possess images--one can't possess the present but one can possess the past.

To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder - a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.

The painter constructs, the photographer discloses.
- Susan Sontag

Photographer 📸 @candelariadeferrari

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄

Can you accept the notion that once you change your internal state, you don’t need the external world to provide you with a reason to feel joy, gratitude, appreciation, or any other elevated emotion?

To be empowered—to be free, to be unlimited, to be creative, to be genius, to be divine—that is who you are…. Once you feel this way, memorize this feeling; remember this feeling. This is who you really are… - Joe Dispenza

The photographs from INSEX by @alexbstoddard explores the parallels between metamorphosis in the natural world and human coming-of-age. Through staged, highly stylized images, Stoddard invites viewers into a colorfully dark world of budding sexuality and crawling insects. This series of previously unreleased images paints a surreal picture of adolescence in a glorious frenzy of buzzing hormones and sprouting wings. The works on display were created over a span of (5) years in locations around the world. Each constructed scene features a youthful subject, often Stoddard himself, in a state of change or paired with a many-legged counterpart. 👧🏻 @anactingangel

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐇

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔

Around us, life bursts with miracles--a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops.

If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings.

When we are tired and feel discouraged by life's daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.

- Thich Nhat Hahn

Photographer 📸 @basilpaulo.in Director @diljinkrishna 👦🏽👦🏽 @yishnav @_vivek__g_ @amith_a_myth @hru__du_________ @diljinkrishna

𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐕𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐄

𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐕𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄

I find one vast garden spread out all over the universe. All plants, all human beings, all higher mind bodies are about in this garden in various ways, each has his own uniqueness and beauty. Their presence and variety give me great delight. Every one of you adds with his special feature to the glory of the garden.

Whether you worship Christ, Krishna, Kali or Allah, you actually worship the one Light that is also in you, since It pervades all things.

He who has created the universe is Himself present in all circumstances and conditions.
- Anandamayi Ma

Photographer 📸 @ceuderamos

𝐒𝐎 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓

I am a Middle Eastern man brought up with all the prejudices of that area. I grew up knowing I was attracted to men but also had it drummed into me that this was ‘haram’.

The day I discovered the internet my knowledge of the outside world and its views on sexuality expanded and allowed me limited access to others like myself.

Through the internet I made friends and in time discovered someone who I ultimately fell in love with. We both met up in Istanbul and bonded deciding that my partner would sponsor me to come to live in the west.

It was no easy journey, we filled out many forms, took multitudes of photos of us both . At first, we were refused with the government officials not believing we were a couple. Finally, after 3 years we were reunited in England and my life started anew.

Life has treated me a lot better here. I am accepted and treated with sincerity and honesty. So, my partner and I have embarked on a photographic journey to show how my life has changed.

I have attempted to recreate aspects of my previous life whilst on holidays back to the Middle East, shown my newfound friends here in England and what my sexuality means.. -
@tabphotography8

Photographer 📸 @tabphotography8 👦🏾👦🏻 @body_by_kennn @tabphotography8

𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐄𝐃𝐆𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.

Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something- and it is only such love that can know freedom.

The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end - you don't come to an achievement, you don't come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.
- J. Krishnamurti

Photographer 📸 @arianne.clement.photography

𝐇𝐔𝐒𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐈

𝐇𝐔𝐒𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐅𝐄, 𝐀 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Maya, 8, and Kishore, 13, pose for a wedding photo inside their new home near Jaipur, India.

In many societies, marriage is a celebrated institution signifying a union between two adults and the beginning of their future together. Unfortunately, millions of girls still suffer from a vastly different marriage experience every year. Many brides around the world are still children, not even teenagers.

So young are some girls that they hold onto their toys during the wedding ceremony. Usually these girls become mothers in their early teens, while they are still children themselves. The practice can result in profound negative consequences for the girls, their families, and their entire communities. Globally, an estimated 12 million girls are married before reaching age 18; Join us in our mission to empower girls and end child marriage.

In communities where child marriage is prevalent, families are under tremendous social pressure to uphold the practice. Failure to conform can bring ridicule, disapproval, and shame to the family, and loss of status. In many societies, child marriage is about patriarchy, marriage transfers a father’s rule over his daughter to her husband. Harmful notions of child marriage, enshrined in some local customs and sometimes justified with religious arguments, contribute to the perpetuation of the practice in communities across the world. - Too Young to Wed @tooyoungtowed

Please support the invaluable mission of @tooyoungtowed @stephsinclairpix

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐀

Time is only an idea. There is only the Reality Whatever you think it is, it looks like that. If you call it time, it is time. If you call it existence, it is existence, and so on. After calling it time, you divide it into days and nights, months, years, hours, minutes, etc. Time is immaterial for the Path of Knowledge. But some of theserules and discipline are good for beginners.

Become conscious of being conscious. Say or think “I am”, and add nothing to it. Be aware of the stillness that follows the “I am”. Sense your presence, the naked unveiled, unclothed beingness. It is untouched by young or old, rich or poor, good or bad, or any other attributes. It is the spacious womb of all creation, all form.

You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you. Since you are awareness there is no need to attain or cultivate it.
- Ramana Maharshi

Photographer 📸 @jadebeallphotography Jade Beall is a proud mother and a Tucson, AZ based world-renown Photographer specializing in truthful images of women to inspire feeling irreplaceably beautiful and good about one's body as a counter-balance to the airbrushed photoshopped imagery of a single body shape and age that dominates main stream media.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐆𝐀𝐙𝐄

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐆𝐀𝐙𝐄

She is not naked as she is;
She is naked as the spectator sees her.
- John Berger, Ways of Seeing 

Feminists, psychoanalysts, and visual theorists among other thinkers have provided persistent commentary on the power derived by the act of looking upon a subject through the concept of the gaze (Berger 1972; Ettinger 1995; Foucault 1965; Freud; hooks 1992; Lacan 1964; Mulvey 1989.) The cis-hetero-male scopophlic gaze, wherein the viewer actively looks upon and concomitantly derives both power and pleasure from the passive female form, has been paid particular attention in critical discourse. According to this theoretical outlook, classical Western arts and the consumer capitalist mass media alike participate in the objectification of the female form, enacting a sort of violence upon these bodies and reflecting cultural values derived from a patriarchal system.

I set myself a challenge in THE HUMAN GAZE series: present photographic variants of the naked female form that do not invite the viewer’s scopophilic gaze. Through this series, I photographed a large number of naked models across the spectrum of multiple identity coordinates -- gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, ability -- whose bodies are situated along the spectrum of the female form.

In THE HUMAN GAZE the naked female form does not belong to the spectator. These bodies are not objects to be actively looked upon for the purpose of deriving power/pleasure. Rather they stand on their own as full subjects. The gaze is thus reclaimed by the female form and stripped of its patriarchal power. The unilateral act of looking by the viewer upon the subject is recast as reciprocal exchange between subject and subject. The bodies of THE HUMAN GAZE do not view themselves nude-as-object; rather they are fully human in their nakedness. The female form does not need the spectator to become anything; it does not ask for permission; it does not try to challenge. These bodies do not lack anything; they are whole; they are human. - Julia Shoots

Photographer 📸 @juliashoots

𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐄 Do

𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐄

Don't look for peace. Don't look for any other state than the one you are in now; otherwise, you will set up inner conflict and unconscious resistance. Forgive yourself for not being at peace. The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your non-peace becomes transmuted into peace. Anything you accept fully will get you there, will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender.

You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle.

Your outer journey may contain a million steps; your inner journey only has one: the step you are taking right now.
- Eckhart Tolle

Photographer 📸 @__adey__ for @lampoonmagazine

𝐁𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐆

𝐁𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐓𝐎 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒

Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.

Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.

Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.
- Roy T. Bennett

Photography 📸 @rankinarchive

𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐆𝐘 𝐃𝐈

𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐆𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄

Surrender deeper into intelligent love; Trust in the unknown; Continuously surrender some aspect of the limited self to join the greater self; Lose yourself in nothing to become everything; Relax into an infinite deep sea of coherent energy.

Keep unfolding deeper and deeper into oneness; Continuously let go of control; Feel greater and greater degrees of wholeness, and finally;

As a consciousness, moment by moment become aware, pay attention to, experience, be present with, and feel more and more of this unified field all around you—without returning your awareness back to three-dimensional reality.
- Joe Dispenza

Photographer 📸 @eastlando_photography

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liberatum

Global Multimedia and Multidisciplinary Cultural Organization Empowering and Inspiring Minds to Promote Social Change and Raise Consciousness

𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐋𝐄𝐀

𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐘

We are either going to have a future where women lead the way to make peace with the Earth or we are not going to have a human future at all.

Globalized industrialized food is not cheap: it is too costly for the Earth, for the farmers, for our health. The Earth can no longer carry the burden of groundwater mining, pesticide pollution, disappearance of species and destabilization of the climate. Farmers can no longer carry the burden of debt, which is inevitable in industrial farming with its high costs of production.

It is incapable of producing safe, culturally appropriate, tasty, quality food. And it is incapable of producing enough food for all because it is wasteful of land, water and energy. Industrial agriculture uses ten times more energy than it produces. It is thus ten times less efficient.

As usual, in every scheme that worsens the position of the poor, it is the poor who are invoked as beneficiaries.
- Vandana Shiva

Photographer 📸 @poesiacomelos

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐀

Daniel Obasi is a Nigerian photographer, stylist and art director currently based in Lagos. His works aim to advance discourse surrounding livelihood in Nigeria, with a particular focus on Lagos’ queer community. Inspired by Afrofuturism and old cinema, Obasi uses colour and narrative to capture the communities of his choosing through an idealised, timeless lens. His work has achieved international acclaim, and he has recently published his debut photo book, Beautiful Resistance.

The project came to fruition amidst the #EndSARS movement of 2020. Supporters called for the disbanding of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit of the Police notorious for citizen abuse in Nigeria. A viral video allegedly showing SARS officers killing a young man sparked a series of mass protests. Protesters were met with violence, and unarmed demonstrators were shot at Lekki Toll Bridge.

In this photobook, Obasi pays homage to the power of Nigerian protest, to resilience and resistance. Obasi told Dazed the photo book is “an ode to the Queer minority community in Nigeria and young Nigerians who stood up against police brutality and political corruption.” Collaborating with Louis Vuitton, Obasi aims to provoke us to think deeper about how (or if) art can inspire change within the political landscape globally.

Released a few years after these events, the country's youth and queer community suffer at the hands of the state. Yet as the presidential election approaches, the strength of resistance and community, displayed beautifully by Obasi, could pave the way to fairer futures. We caught up with him to learn more about this project and the communities that inspired it. - Isobel Gorman-Buckley, Metal Magazine

Photographer 📸 @iamdanielobasi

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐅

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐎𝐌

Human evolution has two steps -
from being somebody to being nobody;
and from being nobody to being everybody.
This knowledge can bring
sharing and caring throughout the world.

I tell you, deep inside you is a fountain of bliss, a fountain of joy. Deep inside your center core is truth, light, love, there is no guilt there, there is no fear there. Psychologists have never looked deep enough.

Activity and rest are two vital aspects of life. To find a balance in them is a skill in itself. Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have. Finding them in each other - activity in rest and rest in activity - is the ultimate freedom.
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Photographer 📸 @thevisualchef 👩🏾 @albino__unusual

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐌𝐀 𝐓𝐇𝐀

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐌𝐀 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐀

In India we're fighting to retain a wilderness that we have. Whereas in the west, it's gone. Every person that's walking down the street is a walking bar code.

You can tell where their clothes are from, how much they cost, which designer made which shoe, which shop you bought each item from. Everything is civilized and tagged and valued and numbered and put in it's place.

Whereas in India, the wilderness still exists - the unindoctrinated wilderness of the mind, full of untold secrets and wild imaginings.

- Arundhati Roy

Photographers 📸 Daniel Berehulak, Deepak Sharma, Ismail Ferdous, Parul Sharma, Greg Vore

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐒

Live quietly in the moment and see the beauty of all before you. The future will take care of itself.

Be as simple as you can be; you will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and happy your life can become.

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
- Paramhansa Yogananda

Photographer 📸 @kalogenic

𝐀𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒

White Shoes is a collection of self-portraits taken in locations around New York that were central to the city’s once pivotal – and now largely obscured and unacknowledged – involvement in the slave trade. Nona Faustine depicts herself at the sites of slave auctions, burial grounds, slave-owning farms, and the coastal locations where slave ships docked, posing nude apart from a pair of white high-heeled shoes. Documenting herself in places where history becomes tangible, Faustine acts as a conduit or receptor, in solidarity with people whose names and memories have been lost but are embedded in the land.

Through quiet but defiant self-representation, Faustine responds to a history of depiction of Black people that is shaped by subjugation, phrenology, and pseudo-science. Her complex large-format images refer and respond to a range of sources including daguerrotypes of slaves and photographs commissioned by naturalists, while her nudity — expressive of fearless self-possession as well as vulnerability – subverts the legacy of Black and female nudes in Western art. Running throughout the images, the talismanic white shoes that give the series its name suggest the many adaptations to dominant White culture that were and are still demanded of people of colour.

At once historical and speculative, White Shoes confronts the relationship between the visible and invisible, between what is displayed and what is kept from view. @nonafaustine

Photographer 📸 @nonafaustine

𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐁𝐔𝐍

𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐁𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄

Ryan Pfluger’s new book of portraits – Holding Space: Life and Love Through a Queer Lens – is a a hybrid of non-fiction, memoir and photobook. @ryanpfluger

The cover image in Ryan Pfluger’s new book, Holding Space: Life and Love Through a Queer Lens, is a portrait of Jari and Deniz. Staring directly into the lens, they stand thigh-deep in an overgrown meadow, holding each other. The land around them is sprawling, lush and open. It hums with the warm glow of the sunrise. As we’ve come to expect from Pfluger’s portraiture: beauty is abundant.

“Being publicly in love with Deniz has come with its challenges,” Jari writes. “Things we can’t control. But it could never measure up to the genuine and deep-souled beauty that has come out of this relationship. There is a unique comfort being in a relationship with another trans person. The comfort in knowing that my body and how I choose to express my gender are never up for question. That I am never stunted in my process of exploring, and my whole self is welcomed with loving arms.”

Manifesting as a hybrid of non-fiction, memoir and photobook, Holding Space is a moving reflection on the challenging reality of intersectional relationships. Published by Princeton Architectural Press in November, the book traces the stories of 100 queer couples across the United States. The result is a rollercoaster of emotions, illuminating the tension between public and private, how the conditions of a relationship can be safe and hostile simultaneously, and how life’s biggest lessons are often learned the hard way. - British Journal of Photography

Photographer 📸 @ryanpfluger

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐁𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘

I was born in a society that taught me that being fat was a synonym of being ugly. Having a big body meant that I should cover it, I should wear certain clothes in order to look skinny, and even look skinny in pictures. It's really hard to feel beautiful when people feel free to comment on how your body looks and how much you need to change it. It made me feel sorry about my complexion.

Social media can be very toxic when it comes to body standards, but it was really nurturing for me because I found the representation that I lacked in my childhood; seeing beautiful plus sized models and actresses made me aware of the beauty that I own.

It is hard and it is an ongoing process but today, I love my body and I love myself. Most importantly, I don’t feel sorry for doing so.
- @sabrina.gq

Photographer 📸 @mholcph 👧🏻 @sabrina.gq

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐎

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐂𝐓𝐒, 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐒

Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality...One can't possess reality, one can possess images--one can't possess the present but one can possess the past.

To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder - a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.

The painter constructs, the photographer discloses.
- Susan Sontag

Photographer 📸 @candelariadeferrari

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄

Can you accept the notion that once you change your internal state, you don’t need the external world to provide you with a reason to feel joy, gratitude, appreciation, or any other elevated emotion?

To be empowered—to be free, to be unlimited, to be creative, to be genius, to be divine—that is who you are…. Once you feel this way, memorize this feeling; remember this feeling. This is who you really are… - Joe Dispenza

The photographs from INSEX by @alexbstoddard explores the parallels between metamorphosis in the natural world and human coming-of-age. Through staged, highly stylized images, Stoddard invites viewers into a colorfully dark world of budding sexuality and crawling insects. This series of previously unreleased images paints a surreal picture of adolescence in a glorious frenzy of buzzing hormones and sprouting wings. The works on display were created over a span of (5) years in locations around the world. Each constructed scene features a youthful subject, often Stoddard himself, in a state of change or paired with a many-legged counterpart. 👧🏻 @anactingangel

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐇

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔

Around us, life bursts with miracles--a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops.

If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings.

When we are tired and feel discouraged by life's daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.

- Thich Nhat Hahn

Photographer 📸 @basilpaulo.in Director @diljinkrishna 👦🏽👦🏽 @yishnav @_vivek__g_ @amith_a_myth @hru__du_________ @diljinkrishna

𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐕𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐄

𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐕𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄

I find one vast garden spread out all over the universe. All plants, all human beings, all higher mind bodies are about in this garden in various ways, each has his own uniqueness and beauty. Their presence and variety give me great delight. Every one of you adds with his special feature to the glory of the garden.

Whether you worship Christ, Krishna, Kali or Allah, you actually worship the one Light that is also in you, since It pervades all things.

He who has created the universe is Himself present in all circumstances and conditions.
- Anandamayi Ma

Photographer 📸 @ceuderamos

𝐒𝐎 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓

I am a Middle Eastern man brought up with all the prejudices of that area. I grew up knowing I was attracted to men but also had it drummed into me that this was ‘haram’.

The day I discovered the internet my knowledge of the outside world and its views on sexuality expanded and allowed me limited access to others like myself.

Through the internet I made friends and in time discovered someone who I ultimately fell in love with. We both met up in Istanbul and bonded deciding that my partner would sponsor me to come to live in the west.

It was no easy journey, we filled out many forms, took multitudes of photos of us both . At first, we were refused with the government officials not believing we were a couple. Finally, after 3 years we were reunited in England and my life started anew.

Life has treated me a lot better here. I am accepted and treated with sincerity and honesty. So, my partner and I have embarked on a photographic journey to show how my life has changed.

I have attempted to recreate aspects of my previous life whilst on holidays back to the Middle East, shown my newfound friends here in England and what my sexuality means.. -
@tabphotography8

Photographer 📸 @tabphotography8 👦🏾👦🏻 @body_by_kennn @tabphotography8

𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐄𝐃𝐆𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.

Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something- and it is only such love that can know freedom.

The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end - you don't come to an achievement, you don't come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.
- J. Krishnamurti

Photographer 📸 @arianne.clement.photography

𝐇𝐔𝐒𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐈

𝐇𝐔𝐒𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐅𝐄, 𝐀 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Maya, 8, and Kishore, 13, pose for a wedding photo inside their new home near Jaipur, India.

In many societies, marriage is a celebrated institution signifying a union between two adults and the beginning of their future together. Unfortunately, millions of girls still suffer from a vastly different marriage experience every year. Many brides around the world are still children, not even teenagers.

So young are some girls that they hold onto their toys during the wedding ceremony. Usually these girls become mothers in their early teens, while they are still children themselves. The practice can result in profound negative consequences for the girls, their families, and their entire communities. Globally, an estimated 12 million girls are married before reaching age 18; Join us in our mission to empower girls and end child marriage.

In communities where child marriage is prevalent, families are under tremendous social pressure to uphold the practice. Failure to conform can bring ridicule, disapproval, and shame to the family, and loss of status. In many societies, child marriage is about patriarchy, marriage transfers a father’s rule over his daughter to her husband. Harmful notions of child marriage, enshrined in some local customs and sometimes justified with religious arguments, contribute to the perpetuation of the practice in communities across the world. - Too Young to Wed @tooyoungtowed

Please support the invaluable mission of @tooyoungtowed @stephsinclairpix

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐀

Time is only an idea. There is only the Reality Whatever you think it is, it looks like that. If you call it time, it is time. If you call it existence, it is existence, and so on. After calling it time, you divide it into days and nights, months, years, hours, minutes, etc. Time is immaterial for the Path of Knowledge. But some of theserules and discipline are good for beginners.

Become conscious of being conscious. Say or think “I am”, and add nothing to it. Be aware of the stillness that follows the “I am”. Sense your presence, the naked unveiled, unclothed beingness. It is untouched by young or old, rich or poor, good or bad, or any other attributes. It is the spacious womb of all creation, all form.

You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you. Since you are awareness there is no need to attain or cultivate it.
- Ramana Maharshi

Photographer 📸 @jadebeallphotography Jade Beall is a proud mother and a Tucson, AZ based world-renown Photographer specializing in truthful images of women to inspire feeling irreplaceably beautiful and good about one's body as a counter-balance to the airbrushed photoshopped imagery of a single body shape and age that dominates main stream media.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐆𝐀𝐙𝐄

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐆𝐀𝐙𝐄

She is not naked as she is;
She is naked as the spectator sees her.
- John Berger, Ways of Seeing 

Feminists, psychoanalysts, and visual theorists among other thinkers have provided persistent commentary on the power derived by the act of looking upon a subject through the concept of the gaze (Berger 1972; Ettinger 1995; Foucault 1965; Freud; hooks 1992; Lacan 1964; Mulvey 1989.) The cis-hetero-male scopophlic gaze, wherein the viewer actively looks upon and concomitantly derives both power and pleasure from the passive female form, has been paid particular attention in critical discourse. According to this theoretical outlook, classical Western arts and the consumer capitalist mass media alike participate in the objectification of the female form, enacting a sort of violence upon these bodies and reflecting cultural values derived from a patriarchal system.

I set myself a challenge in THE HUMAN GAZE series: present photographic variants of the naked female form that do not invite the viewer’s scopophilic gaze. Through this series, I photographed a large number of naked models across the spectrum of multiple identity coordinates -- gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, ability -- whose bodies are situated along the spectrum of the female form.

In THE HUMAN GAZE the naked female form does not belong to the spectator. These bodies are not objects to be actively looked upon for the purpose of deriving power/pleasure. Rather they stand on their own as full subjects. The gaze is thus reclaimed by the female form and stripped of its patriarchal power. The unilateral act of looking by the viewer upon the subject is recast as reciprocal exchange between subject and subject. The bodies of THE HUMAN GAZE do not view themselves nude-as-object; rather they are fully human in their nakedness. The female form does not need the spectator to become anything; it does not ask for permission; it does not try to challenge. These bodies do not lack anything; they are whole; they are human. - Julia Shoots

Photographer 📸 @juliashoots

𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐄 Do

𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐄

Don't look for peace. Don't look for any other state than the one you are in now; otherwise, you will set up inner conflict and unconscious resistance. Forgive yourself for not being at peace. The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your non-peace becomes transmuted into peace. Anything you accept fully will get you there, will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender.

You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle.

Your outer journey may contain a million steps; your inner journey only has one: the step you are taking right now.
- Eckhart Tolle

Photographer 📸 @__adey__ for @lampoonmagazine

𝐁𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐆

𝐁𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐓𝐎 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒

Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.

Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.

Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.
- Roy T. Bennett

Photography 📸 @rankinarchive

𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐆𝐘 𝐃𝐈

𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐆𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄

Surrender deeper into intelligent love; Trust in the unknown; Continuously surrender some aspect of the limited self to join the greater self; Lose yourself in nothing to become everything; Relax into an infinite deep sea of coherent energy.

Keep unfolding deeper and deeper into oneness; Continuously let go of control; Feel greater and greater degrees of wholeness, and finally;

As a consciousness, moment by moment become aware, pay attention to, experience, be present with, and feel more and more of this unified field all around you—without returning your awareness back to three-dimensional reality.
- Joe Dispenza

Photographer 📸 @eastlando_photography

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