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liberatum

Global Multimedia and Multidisciplinary Cultural Organization Empowering and Inspiring Minds to Promote Social Change and Raise Consciousness
💙✨🌴🌈🌍🕊🧿

𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐌𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐋𝐄

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself. When you are born a lotus flower, be a beautiful lotus flower, don't try to be a magnolia flower. If you crave acceptance and recognition and try to change yourself to fit what other people want you to be, you will suffer all your life. True happiness and true power lie in understanding yourself, accepting yourself, having confidence in yourself.

In modern society most of us don't want to be in touch with ourselves; we want to be in touch with other things like religion, sports, politics, a book - we want to forget ourselves. Anytime we have leisure, we want to invite something else to enter us, opening ourselves to the television and telling the television to come and colonize us.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Photographer 📸 Mark Edwards

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐌

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐌 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐘

“Liberatum stands apart for its hip quotient and boundary-crossing ambition. Liberatum seeks not only to bring together the local creative community, but also to connect them with other international artists. All events are free; dialogue is encouraged. ” – THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Culture King” – GQ

“The G-20 of culture” – VOGUE

“Legendary” – THE GUARDIAN

“Manages to persuade the great and the good of the arts to turn up and perform.” – WALLPAPER

“Some of the world’s biggest names in culture will be landing in Hong Kong next month.” – THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

“It’s fascinating to hear such a broad range of creative luminaries break down the nature of creativity and inspiration and hear common themes emerge from the divergent perspectives.” – FAST COMPANY

“In a world of conferences, festivals, summits and symposiums, it can be difficult—and time-consuming—to sort through the masses. Liberatum has worked to change that, by creating multidisciplinary cultural moments that wrap diverse artistic endeavors into one.” – ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST

📸 Photos from Liberatum festivals, collaborations, documentaries and summits from all over the world

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇

It is not your passing thoughts or brilliant ideas so much as your plain everyday habits that control your life....Live simply. Don’t get caught in the machine of the world— it is too exacting. By the time you get what you are seeking your nerves are gone, the heart is damaged, and the bones are aching. Resolve to develop your spiritual powers more earnestly from now on. Learn the art of right living. If you have joy you have everything,so learn to be glad and contented....Have happiness now.

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.

Millions of people never analyze themselves. Mentally they are mechanical products of the factory of their environment, preoccupied with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, working and sleeping, and going here and there to be entertained. They don’t know what or why they are seeking, nor why they never realize complete happiness and lasting satisfaction. By evading self-analysis, people go on being robots, conditioned by their environment. True self-analysis is the greatest art of progress.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Photographer 📸 Steve McCurry @stevemccurryofficial

I have come across plenty of judgmental people ful

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐃

Thousands of refugees and migrants are dying, while many are suffering extreme human rights abuses on irregular journeys between West and East Africa and Africa’s Mediterranean Coast.

A new report released today by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) at the Danish Refugee Council, titled ‘On this journey, no one cares if you live or die’, details how most people taking these routes suffer or witness unspeakable brutality and inhumanity at the hands of smugglers, traffickers, militias and in some cases even State officials.

“For too long, the harrowing abuses experienced by refugees and migrants along these overland routes have remained largely invisible,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “This report documents killings and widespread violence of the most brutal nature, perpetrated against desperate people fleeing war, violence and persecution. Strong leadership and concerted action are needed by States in the region, with support from the international community, to end these cruelties, protect the victims and prosecute the criminals responsible.”

The men, women and children who survive are often left with lasting and severe mental health issues as a result of the traumas they faced. For many, their arrival in Libya is the final staging post on a journey characterized by horrific abuses including random killings, torture, forced labour and beatings. Others continue to report being subjected to brutal violence, including being burnt with hot oil, melted plastic, or heated metal objects, electrocution and being tied in stress positions.

Women and girls, but also men and boys, are at high risk of rape and sexual and gender-based violence, particularly at checkpoints and border areas, and during desert crossings. - @refugees

Photographer 📸 Jashim Salam, Bangladesh @jashimsalam

Photo: Rohingya children watching an awareness film about health and sanitation near Tangkhali refugee camp in Ukhiya.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐍𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒

Everything worthwhile in life is won through surmounting the associated negative experience. Any attempt to escape the negative, to avoid it or quash it or silence it, only backfires. The avoidance of suffering is a form of suffering. The avoidance of struggle is a struggle. The denial of failure is a failure. Hiding what is shameful is itself a form of shame.

Pain is an inextricable thread in the fabric of life, and to tear it out is not only impossible, but destructive: attempting to tear it out unravels everything else with it. To try to avoid pain is to give too many fucks about pain. In contrast, if you’re able to not give a fuck about the pain, you become unstoppable.

There is a simple realization from which all personal improvement and growth emerges. This is the realization that we, individually, are responsible for everything in our lives, no matter the external circumstances. We don’t always control what happens to us.

But we always control how we interpret what happens to us, as well as how we respond. Whether we consciously recognize it or not, we are always responsible for our experiences.

It’s impossible not to be. Choosing to not consciously interpret events in our lives is still an interpretation of the events of our lives. - Mark Manson

Photographer 📸 Dimpy Bhalotia @dimpy.bhalotia

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓

Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.

Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.

A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the "why" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any "how".
- Victor Frankl

Photographer 📸 Denis Dailleux @denisdailleux_

The work of Denis Dailleux, who has been living in Cairo for the past nine years, is a lasting tribute to the generosity of the Egyptian people he fell in love with on his first visit fifteen years ago, and Mother and Son, without a doubt, his most personal work. With great respect and sensitivity, he takes us into these families' inner sanctum, where a bodybuilder son's absolute love sounds like an ode to all mothers, with the power to move viewers the world over. - Text by Delphine Henry

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐅

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘

I first discovered Ghana when I came across the beautiful book Paul Strand dedicated to this country. It made such an incredible impression on me that on that day, I promised myself that I would one day go and photograph Ghana.

After Gallimard Editions published my book "Fils de Roi" - a work entirely dedicated to Egypt -, I felt that the time had come for me to find new sources of inspiration. In search of fresh landscapes and new ways of being, I set out to explore Sub-Saharan Africa.

My first encounter was in Accra, with the community of Jamestown’s fishermen. There, I was struck by scenes straight out of old oil paintings. The light along the ocean dazzled, transforming the men into silhouettes. After experiencing the prudishness of Egypt, I loved the beauty and the freedom of the Ghanaian bodies. For a photographer, these bodies are a gift.

Further to meeting Joseph, I visited his village in the Ashanti region. But Ghana is not a country so easily tamed, and I had to make many return trips. And during my last trip, I found that my stubbornness had paid off. It was then that I discovered a village at the foot of Lake Volta where I encountered the most beautiful people. It was there that I took what may be my finest portraits - of a village idiot, of the children, and once again, of a group of fishermen.

I love this feeling of perpetual discovery which reminds me of childhood. I try to live within this eternal yet self-renewing state of constant rebirth. - Denis Dailleux @denisdailleux_

Photographer 📸 Denis Dailleux @denisdailleux_

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐈

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐈𝐂

Human beings have only a weak ability to process logic, but a very deep core capability of recognizing patterns. To do logical thinking, we need to use the neocortex, which is basically a large pattern recognizer.

It is not an ideal mechanism for performing logical transformations, but it is the only facility we have for the job. Compare, for example, how a human plays chess to how a typical computer chess program works. Deep Blue, the computer that defeated Garry Kasparov, the human world chess champion, in 1997 was capable of analyzing the logical implications of 200 million board positions (representing different move-countermove sequences) every second. (That can now be done, by the way, on a few personal computers.) Kasparov was asked how many positions he could analyze each second, and he said it was less than one.

How is it, then, that he was able to hold up to Deep Blue at all? The answer is the very strong ability humans have to recognize patterns. However, we need to train this facility, which is why not everyone can play master chess.
- Ray Kurzweil

Photographer 📸 @__adey__

𝐂𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐍𝐔𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐎

Francine Aksanti, 21 years old, is well hearing. In the middle of a group of women, she is following, in a relaxed athmosphere, a cooking demonstration on “four star meal” at the Bitobolo II health centre, south west of the city of Bunyakiri in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mother of twins (Songa and Muganza), Francine doesn’t understand why her babies have been constantly losing weight over the last six months. Worried, the young mother took her twins to the Bitobolo II health centre. The medical diagnosis showed that the children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

Songa and Muganza were admitted to the outpatient therapeutic nutrition unit and received nutritional supplement foods. After four weeks, Songa and Muganza were gradually putting on weight.

Their mother continues to take them every week to the preschool surgery so that she can better monitor their growth. It’s here that she discovered, along with other nursing mothers, how to make “four star meal”: a dish made with local products and recipes to feed children without having to spend a lot of money.

“It’s a combination of different types of food which is meant to bring the micronutrients necessary for a child’s proper development. The first star is cereals such as boiled sorghum flour to which peanut paste is added as the second star. The third star is bananas and finally eggs yolks as the fourth. All these ingredients are affordable for almost everyone here” explained Dr Emery Lukaka, nutritionist from Médecins d’Afrique, partner of UNICEF.

Like Francine, most families in Bunyakiri produce their own food. But ignorance of good culinary practices, the weight of tradition, the multiple displacements of the population associated with the low purchasing power of households mean that the diet of these families is little or not diversified. Adults and young children are subjected to the same diet which often monotonous and poor quality, leading to the children becoming malnourished. This low diet also reduces parents’ ability to fight childhood diseases. - Frederik Lerneryd

📸 Frederik Lerneryd @lerneryd

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐋𝐈

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

“Nothing But Light” explores concepts of boundaries,vulnerability, and consent. We all experience the world through our bodies. The body is the easiest target for disrespect, worship, objectification, shame, neglect, control, and attachment. The violation of a person’s dignity often begins with disrespect of their body, and restoration of control begins with the acknowledgment that a person’s body matters and inherently deserves respect. We crave to be seen and accepted, but opening up, we lose control over the consequences. We have no guarantee that our trust will not be violated and boundaries will not be crossed, we risk rejection and abandonment. To protect ourselves, we hide our truth. But the more walls we build, the more isolated we feel. Allowing someone to see your body is a form of surrender. I see the project as a way to create an empathic and respectful space for people to surrender within the boundaries of consent, so they can see themselves, and be seen as they are.

As a person who’s lived through a childhood trauma, I’ve struggled to define my boundaries and to understand my value. I was getting a lot of attention because I was conventionally attractive and naturally, I assigned my value to my body. In my early twenties I worked as a dancer in a topless clubs. Surprisingly, through this job I developed better boundaries. “No. You can’t. This is not allowed.” - I had to repeat those words over and over again until they became natural.

As I grew able to advocate for myself in most situations, defining my boundaries with people closest to me still remained a challenge. As I learned to act certain, my internal sense of value was still caught in a web.

In 2008 I quit dancing and became a professional portrait photographer. I photographed 100s of people of all genders, background and ages who are learning to recognize the beauty of their bodies unapologetically. To my subjects this photo sessions are a radical act of self acceptance. - Anastasia Kuba

Photographer 📸 Anastasia Kuba @anastasiakuba

𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐎

𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐎𝐃

In Kampala, the city of seven hills, the traffic lanes are filled with 14-seat taxis and boda boda motorcycle taxis. The buzz of the city never slows no matter the time of night or day.

But just four hours north of Uganda's capital city, time moves more slowly. Banana trees replace the streetlights, and the red African soil takes over from the tar-covered city roads.

The boda boda bike takes a slow, bumpy journey through the green landscape of the countryside towards the village.

Mwanje was born here and the piece of land he owns has been in his family for generations. His father is buried just 10 metres away from the round, grass-roofed hut he inherited from his father.

He lives with his two wives, Lynda and Florence, and their eight children, who range in age from five months to 13 years. They grow sweet potato and cassava, and after a one-hour trek along small trails in the deep jungle, they buy fresh fish from the small boats that have been out on the lake before sunrise.

Theirs is a typical family in this part of Uganda but for one thing: Five of the seven children Mwanje had with Florence were born with albinism, a rare genetic condition where the body is unable, or is limited in its ability to produce melanin, the substance responsible for the colouring in skin, hair and eyes.

"My first reaction when my first son with albinism was born was just shock. I didn't know what to think, but I immediately decided to love him. He was our son," says Mwanje.

But in many families this is not the case. Some keep their children inside all the time, afraid of what neighbours might say, or because they lack knowledge about how to care for a child with albinism. Often, the men choose to leave their wives as soon as the baby is born, arguing that it is not their child. - Fredrik Lerneryd @lerneryd for @aljazeeraenglish

If you would like to contribute to this family and other people with albinism in Uganda and around the world, you may contact the following organisations:
-Advantage Africa:
http://www.advantageafrica.org/help-albino-children-survive

To read the full story, visit aljazeera.com

Photographer 📸 Fredrik Lerneryd @lerneryd

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐅𝐀𝐓, 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐅𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐌, 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐅𝐔𝐂𝐊 𝐘𝐎𝐔

The Adipositivity Project aims to promote the acceptance of benign human size variation and encourage discussion of body politics, not by listing the merits of big people, or detailing examples of excellence (these things are easily seen all around us), but rather through a visual display of fat physicality. The sort that's normally unseen.

The hope is to broaden definitions of physical beauty. Literally.

The folks you see in these images are educators, executives, mothers, musicians, professionals, performers, artists, activists, clerks, and writers. They are perhaps even the women you've clucked at on the subway, rolled your eyes at in the market, or joked about with your friends.

This is what they look like with their clothes off.

Some are showing you their bodies proudly. Others timidly. And some quite reluctantly. But they all share a determination in altering commonly accepted notions of a narrow and specific beauty ideal.

Bookmark adipositivity.com and check back often, as new photographs are added weekly. And please help spread the word about The Adipositivity Project. Part fat, part feminism, part "fuck you." - Substantia Jones @adipositivity

Photographer 📸 Substantia Jones @adipositivity

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐒 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐊𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐀 𝐒𝐋𝐔𝐌 𝐈𝐍 𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐈

Every Wednesday at Spurgeon's Academy, a school in the heart of Kibera's maze of narrow streets, students remove the classroom furniture and sweep the floor.

School uniforms are exchanged for colourful clothes. When teacher Mike Wamaya enters the classroom, the students take up positions with one hand on the concrete wall as though it were a ballet bar. Classical music plays from a portable speaker, and ballet class begins. The class is organised by the charities Annos Africa and One Fine Day and repeated in slums across Kenya. In Nairobi, they work with two schools in Kibera and one in Mathare.

Dance helps the children to express themselves and strengthens their self-confidence and belief that they can achieve greatness. Several children have had their talent spotted and now attend Dance Centre Kenya in a smart area of Nairobi, moving from the harsh conditions of the slum to boarding school nearby.

- World Press Photo

Photographer 📸 Fredrik Lerneryd @lerneryd

𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐈 - 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐀 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍

This project by Manyatsa Monyamane seeks to emphasise the erasure of black bodies, specifically black women’s bodies, in modern history, while also looking to highlight that we are not in an age where women of colour are able to start sculpting their own narratives, voices and images.

When a confident black woman struts through a space, her presence is announced by the energy she exudes. Her gait, attire, and sheer elegance precede her, forming unshakeable, roaring opinions in the minds of those looking on. Such women would have a certain phrase associated with their characters. In the African culture you may hear someone utter “Mme o, ona le serithi” which loosely translates to “This woman has a powerful aura”. She jolts you from your sense of comfort and compels you to lean forward and take notice of her.

This project seeks to emphasise the erasure of black bodies, specifically black women’s bodies, in modern history, while also looking to highlight that we are not in an age where women of colour are able to start sculpting their own narratives, voices and images; that women of colour have never been encouraged to embrace their beings as freely as should have been the case; and that as a result, a hyper-sexual society discourages the full expression of womanhood, particularly in the case of women of colour.

Each woman who contributes to this series brings forth a different personality whilst maintaining a true sense of self. This series showcases the multiplicity of characteristics that make each woman intensely unique in terms of her aptitude to embrace everything that comes with being a black woman. - PHmuseum @phmuseum

Photographer 📸 Manyatsa Monyamane

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐄𝐋𝐓𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐒

Undercover Kenya Wildlife Services Ranger detusk a bull elephant killed by a spear in the Amboseli ecosystem in the shadow of Amboseli, Kenya, May 29, 2011. The elephant was killed by a single spear stroke close to the spine which penetrated deeply enough to cause massive internal bleeding. It is not known whether this was a poaching attempt or whether this was a case of human elephant conflict with the animal in the crops of local Masaai. The animal was detusked and the ivory sent to the KWS HQ in Amboseli National Park.

KWS has the mandate to protect wildlife in Kenya but lack the manpower and resources. Organisations like Big Life are the private sector arm of KWS in the 2 million acre Amboseli ecosystem, working alongside them to supply manpower, vehicles, funding, information networks and aircraft to practise effective conservation in the region.

This post includes images of some of the last of the great Elephant tuskers in Africa, taken in Tsavo Eastm 18 May, 2011. Massive elephant poaching in recent years has seen most of the mature bull elephant population of African countries decimated for their ivory. A Tusker is defined as an elephant with a set of 100 pound ivory tusks, or therabouts. This depletion of the elephant gene pool is having a negative effect on populations, with weak dna being passed on instead of the strongest.

In one of the photographs, ICCN Rangers investigate the corpse of a recently killed sub-adult male elephant in Lulimbi, Eastern DRC, February 29, 2012. The elephant has obviously been killed for its ivory, a trend on the rise across the DRC and one which makes the Rangers job very difficult.

In another image, we witness the largest mass killing of elephants in recent history took place at Bouba Ndjida National Park in North Cameroon close to the Chad and Central African Republic Borders from January through March 2012. Eye witnesses have so far located 340 carcasses, the ivory poachers themselves told local villagers they have killed over 650 elephants in their hunt for Ivory over the 500000 hectare region. - Brent Stirton @brentstirton

Photographer 📸 Brent Stirton for @natgeo

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐍

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐌

That’s me in the middle. The year I launched Liberatum. I was seventeen. Had just dropped out of school. Had no money. The year 2000. But I suppose you could say that I possessed plenty of belief and drive. I wasn’t afraid to be who I felt inside. In this photo, celebrating life with the French Ambassador and the High Commissioner of Fiji.

They were both supportive of my mission and dreams. I am so grateful to them for encouraging me back then with words of wisdom. I didn’t want to hide who I was. A queer, proud, powerful, strong and determined queen. I’m thirty six now and my mind during these quarantine days have been full of big ideas and dreams to find ways to create purposeful opportunities around the world to help communities and touch lives, and also shine a light on the stories of the most vulnerable. Building new initiatives.

Liberatum is a brown and queer owned company promoting equality, diversity and human rights around the world through its programmes and platform. Not afraid to speak our mind. Have always been real and don’t intend to change that anytime soon. Love, Pablo Ganguli 💙🕊

𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐌

𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘'𝐒 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄

In Afghanistan you seldom see an unaccompanied woman. Noor Nisa, about 18, was pregnant; her water had just broken. Her husband, whose first wife had died during childbirth, was determined to get Noor Nisa to the hospital in Faizabad, a four-hour drive from their village in Badakhshan Province. - Lynsey Addario

Sometimes National Geographic photographers do more than take images—they also help.

In Afghanistan on a story about maternal mortality, Lynsey Addario came across these two women on the road. Photographing them against a stark background, Addario was struck that they were out alone.

It turns out one was in labour.

“We offered to take them to the hospital, but they said they needed the husband's permission," Addario told my colleague David Beard. Addario and her guide went, got the husband's permission, returned, then drove the woman to a hospital, where the baby was delivered.

It was a happy counterpoint to a grim assignment. “So many women,” Addario said, “die in Afghanistan because they have no access” to medical attention. - Whitney Johnson @natgeo

Photographer 📸 Lynsey Addario @lynseyaddario

𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐄 𝐒𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃?

The question I would like to pose is not, Why are we repressed? but rather, Why do we say, with so much passion and so much resentment... that we are repressed? By what spiral did we come to affirm that sex is negated? What led us to show, ostentatiously, that sex is something we hide, to say it is something we silence?

...I do not maintain that prohibition of sex is a ruse; but it is a ruse to make prohibition into the basic and constitutive element from which one would be able to write the history of what has been said concerning sex starting from the modern epoch.

A policing of sex: that is, not the rigor of a taboo, but the necessity of regulating sex through useful and public discourses. A few examples will suffice. One of the great innovations in the techniques of power in the eighteenth century was the emergence of “population” as an economic and political problem: population as wealth, population as manpower or labor capacity, population balanced between its own growth and the resources it commanded.

Governments perceived that they were not dealing simply with subjects, or even with a “people,” but with a “population,” with its specific phenomena and its peculiar variables: birth and death rates, life expectancy, fertility, state of health, frequency of illnesses, patterns of diet and habitation. - Michel Foucault

Photographer 📸 Sophie Kietzmann @sophiekietzmann 👧🏽 @djouliet

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