Love Harder (2022-ongoing, Malta, France, Türkiye) is a long term project exploring a new perspective on the relationship between queerness and religion in the conservative cultural landscape of the Mediterranean region. People, as complex, multi-faceted individuals, should not have to choose between their religion, cultural background and sexual orientation or gender. This project is mapping the multiplicity of possibilities that many patriarchal cultures try to deny, using portraiture, landscape, interviews and research from specialists in the field. Each portrait is a photograph of someone who is queer (either by their sexual orientation, their gender, or both.), and who were raised in a religious cultural environment, some of whom embraced it, some of whom rejected it. To bring this project closer to home, it is key for me to explore this idea in my mother’s village in the region of Puglia in South Italy, connecting it with my culture, my own queerness, and my Catholic upbringing. I aim to finish this project by June 2025. My five goals are : To produce 10 new images in Puglia ( by February 2025) To produce 10 new images in Beyrouth (by April 2025) My future goals are a publication, and an exhibition, in France and in Türkiye. Ultimately, to make a book. I already have contacts in Lebanon and Puglia who can connect me with people to interview and photograph. The scholarship money will be used towards film costs and travel expenses.
