Allies talk: Ani Gevorgyan, photographer, journalist

I want to tell you about why I am not homophobic, why it’s natural for me, and vice versa, what makes homophobia unnatural to me.

Certainly, it is common for people to begin talking about such a topic, quoting the Constitution, that the human being, their dignity, fundamental freedoms, and rights are absolute values.

But since I’m a photographer, I can not keep myself from the temptation to present the subject we are discussing from the photographer’s point of few and in terms of photography.

There was a time when it was considered that one shall deserve to be photographed. So the subject of photography was whatever was considered to be valued according to certain criteria. Similarly, whatever was considered beautiful according to certain criteria was being photographed.

But in the history of photography, there were developments and emergence of such a formulation – a new vision. That was the time when photographers began photographing things that had never been photographed – people, objects, streets, objects.

I would like the concept of a new vision to be introduced and spread in society with new objectives, new lenses so that the things that happened in the history of photography would also make into other areas of life.

And just as everyone nowadays is equal in the eyes photographer, as every person is equal before the camera, I would like to see all the people equal in the eyes of other people, in their natural “natural cameras”.

This material was made possible through the support from the “Allies in Action” program by COC Netherlands and ILGA-Europe.