Galaxies

  • Dates
    2012 - 2018
  • Author
  • Topics Portrait, Social Issues, Contemporary Issues
  • Locations Jakarta, Jakarta

This ongoing project consists of images obtained by an overlapping process of a portrait of an Indonesian transgender woman, taken by me, and the photo of a galaxy taken by Hubble Telescope.

GALAXIES

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

Charles Darwin

"Every atom of your body has been fabricated in the heart of a star that no longer exists, or in the dreadful explosion with which its existence has ended and has spread its ashes into the galaxy. When we look at the starry sky, actually, we are also looking at the place where we come from.”

Amedeo Balbi

This ongoing project consists of images obtained by an overlapping process of two photographs: one taken by me and the other taken by Hubble Telescope. No color correction has been made, neither on the original images nor on the final image: I work using only the natural and/or artificial lights that are available in the places where I take the portrait. Title and caption of each photograph, as well, are made up of two parts: a description of the galaxy and a part about the subject portrayed.

I have been documenting the daily life of waria community in Jakarta for 5 years, so far. Waria is a term that, in Indonesian, derives from the merging of two words, wanita (woman) and pria (man), and stands for people who are physically born male but who feel that they have a female soul. 7 million of transgender people is estimated to live in Indonesia. But, in recent years, their community has been under increasing pressure amid rising conservatism. The situation has escalated since last year, when high-ranking government officials supported calls for a ban on LGBT activities on University campuses, television and radio programs, arguing that the LGBT community are immoral and dangerous and thus the ban is needed to protect the younger generation, particularly children. Once considered wise people and the ones who can speak with the Gods, because of their duality man-woman, now waria occupy the lowest level of Indonesian society and are stigmatized and bullied.

I have explored with my camera the colourful and cramped 3x2 sqm rooms for rent where the waria live and keep their belongings. Their bodies, their faces, and their gestures constantly question my identity, as the Hubble Telescope scraps portions of an unknown universe, in search of answers to the questions that mankind has always been asking: who are we? Where are we from?

The ethereal beauty of the galaxies expands the boundaries of the tiny spaces and the crumbling buildings waria live in, creating new worlds of flesh and bright stars, hidden thoughts and fluctuating iridescent gases. A mute correspondence of forms and meanings, only seemingly opposed, is established: when we’ll realize that we are just a part of all that is in the Universe, then severance will cease to exist, because everything in the Universe is the same within us all.

This project is my clear artistic statement of resistance and opposition to any kind of discrimination and oppression against LGBT people, especially my transgender friends in Indonesia.

© Elisabetta Zavoli - Image from the Galaxies photography project
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#01 - Pinwheel Galaxy M101 (NGC 5457) and Pani. This giant spiral disk of stars, dust and gas is 170,000 light-years across, almost twice the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. M101 is estimated to contain at least one trillion stars. "Everything which is in the Universe is already within me". Pani, 25 years old. ©Elisabetta Zavoli

© Elisabetta Zavoli - Image from the Galaxies photography project
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#02 - Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) and Ririn. Hubble astronomers captured this party balloon-like sphere of gas being blown into space by a super-hot, massive star. The Bubble Nebula, or NGC 7635, is caused by hot gas escaping into space from a star 45 times more massive than the Sun. "My world is squeezed in this tiny room like my fish in its small aquarium". Ririn, 35 years old. ©Elisabetta Zavoli

© Elisabetta Zavoli - Image from the Galaxies photography project
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#03 - Carina Nebula Pillar and Prada. A pillar of gas in the Carina Nebula is bathed in the light of hot, massive stars. Radiation and fast winds from the stars sculpt the pillar and cause new star formation within it. "When I will die, we will be all alike. We will be all beautiful bright stars". Prada, 24 years old. ©Elisabetta Zavoli

© Elisabetta Zavoli - Image from the Galaxies photography project
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#04 - Eagle Nebula M16 (NGC 6611) and Pani. The towering pillars are about 5 light-years tall, bathed in the blistering ultraviolet light from a group of young, massive stars located off the top of the image. Stars are being born deep inside the pillars, which are made of cold hydrogen gas laced with dust. "They don't want to look at me, they don't talk to me...my heart's bleeding, when they simply pretend I don't exhist." Pani, 25 years old. ©Elisabetta Zavoli

© Elisabetta Zavoli - Image from the Galaxies photography project
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#05 - Orion Nebula M42 (NGC 1976) and Pani. The Orion Nebula is a cavern of tumultuous gas and dust where thousands of stars are forming. The energy released by the young stars transforms their place of birth, whipping their surroundings into fantastic forms. "I am not only a body in the night." Pani, 25 years old. ©Elisabetta Zavoli

© Elisabetta Zavoli - Image from the Galaxies photography project
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#06 - Whirlpool Galaxy M51 (NGC 5194/5) and Zaskia. The large Whirlpool Galaxy (left) is known for its sharply defined spiral arms. Their prominence could be the result of the Whirlpool's gravitational tug-of-war with its smaller companion galaxy (right). "My dream is to become a teacher. I like to teach to children." Zaskia, 23 years old. ©Elisabetta Zavoli

© Elisabetta Zavoli - Image from the Galaxies photography project
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#07 - Westerlund 2, Gum 29 and Ririn. A giant, sparkling cluster of about 3,000 stars called Westerlund 2. The cluster resides in a raucous stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Carina. "If I could have studied, I would have become a doctor." Ririn, 35 years old. ©Elisabetta Zavoli

© Elisabetta Zavoli - Image from the Galaxies photography project
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#08 - Bok Globules in Star-Forming Region (NGC 281) and Pani. Dense knots of dust and gas, called "Bok globules," hold the elements responsible for the formation of stars. These knots, located in the Milky Way, are about 9,500 light-years from Earth. "Beauty is related to desire, so this is why has different meaning to each of us." Pani, 25 years old. ©Elisabetta Zavoli

© Elisabetta Zavoli - Image from the Galaxies photography project
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#09 - Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) and Pani. Radiation from hot stars off the top of the picture illuminates and erodes this giant, gaseous pillar. Additional ultraviolet radiation causes the gas to glow, giving the pillar its red halo of light. "I was born with a male body but my soul is that of a woman." Pani, 25 years old. ©Elisabetta Zavoli

© Elisabetta Zavoli - Image from the Galaxies photography project
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#10 - Stellar Spire in the Eagle Nebula M16 (NGC 6611, IC 4703) and Zaskia. A billowing tower of gas and dust rises from the stellar nursery known as the Eagle Nebula. This small piece of the Eagle Nebula is 57 trillion miles long (91.7 trillion km). "Sometimes my thoughts fly away with my sigarette's smoke." Zaskia, 23 years old. ©Elisabetta Zavoli

© Elisabetta Zavoli - Image from the Galaxies photography project
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#11 - Sombrero Galaxy M104 (NGC 4594) and Ririn. A brilliant white core is encircled by thick dust lanes in this spiral galaxy, seen edge-on. The galaxy is 50,000 light-years across and 28 million light years from Earth. "People say that I'm a good person." Ririn, 35 years old. ©Elisabetta Zavoli

© Elisabetta Zavoli - Image from the Galaxies photography project
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#12 - Infant Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (NGC 346) and Ririn. The Small Magellanic Cloud is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It contains this group of baby stars that are still forming from collapsing gas clouds and have not yet ignited their hydrogen fuel. "We are made of stardust, and to stardust we will return." Ririn, 35 years old. ©Elisabetta Zavoli

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