You may be thinking, why is an artist or photographer concerned with the LGBT+ acronym? 

Who do you fantasize about? Who is your crush? Do you already know who you are really attracted to?

2021 has been a very challenging year for many photographers, but also for Kuala Lumpur Photo Awards (KLPA). Despite this, they still managed to keep this international photo contest going.

Everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet. An age-old novel between two people who loved each other. It resulted in a sad end, because the world did not allow their love. Even today we see that society holds back love between people for various reasons. Sometimes this is based on; origin, religion, age difference, gender identity and even someone's sexuality.

During our search for statistics on the violence against LGBT+ people, we eventually came in contact with the Pink Police Force in Rotterdam. In an interview with NU.nl, they told us they saw an increase in the amount and intensity of incidents.

On October 11, 2021, Roze in Blauw Rotterdam was in the news via NU.nl because they found that both in terms of number of incidents and intensity, LGBT+ violence has increased in recent years. For me, this was reason enough to talk to the police again, as they had previously told me that the police did not keep any figures on this. How this all works and how we can tackle together the LGBT+ violence in our society that's what I like to elaborate on.

It makes no difference to us in how you identify. Whether you are cisgender, nonbinary, transgender, agender, gender fluid, or prefer another gender? Please let us know, and we will always ask you for the pronouns you are most comfortable with.

"Art should provoke people to think if nothing else. Even when I'm not trying to provoke you, I want you to respond."

This image is part of the project ESTRANGED

Amsterdam - 14th of November 2021 - by Max Govers

Rain, foggy, cold and summer 13 July 2021.