Every 25 Hours

2017

7 digital collages

It is not a crime to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer in Brazil. Same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption, and changing gender are legal. It seems like the perfect place for a person from this community to live in. However, in 2016, 343 LGBTQ+ people died in Brazil victims of homophobia, biphobia or transphobia*. There were mothers killing their sons. Trans women being stoned, stabbed, shot to death. Politicians and people of power spreading hate. Then there were people who thought those politicians were right and started spreading hate as well.

By combining found imagery from the Brazilian Carnival, articles from English newspapers and graphic design elements, these powerful collages are meant to make people aware of the issues that the LGBTQ+ community is facing in my home country. A country that, to foreign eyes, seems extremely liberal with its defining image of scantily clad women dancing samba, but it is in fact hiding behind its Carnival mask, inundated with moralism stemming from its deeply conservative and religious society.

*Source: Grupo Gay da Bahia