Nothing but a Curtain

This series combines photography with textiles to explore gender identity in countries once behind the Iron Curtain, the former socio-political barrier that divided the “East” from the “West”. I traveled along the former Iron Curtain border across Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungry, Romania, and Bulgaria. I documented 104 women, non-binary and transgender people who like myself were born in or after 1989 after the Berlin Wall fell down.

These countries are often described as the “Eastern Bloc”, lumping a diverse population into a homogenous mass. My aim is to challenge stereotypes about womanhood and gender identity and Eastern Europe. The project also includes individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community to promote diversity, visibility, and acceptance. As a Polish photographer and a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I face discrimination, rejection, and fear because of my sexuality.

Many Central and Eastern European countries have fewer rights, worse living conditions, and less supportive public opinion of LGBTQIA+ communities. More than ever, stories from behind the former “Iron Curtain” deserve to be told, as they are still censored or even banned internally within these countries. With this project, I want to challenge the way that Central and Eastern European women and non-binary people are presented and contribute to a discussion about borders and gender identity in the 21st Century.

To incorporate the divisive history between the “East” and the “West” I shot this project on a Kiev 80, a Soviet analogue camera made in 1978 in a Ukrainian military factory. The metal shutter of the camera imprints a metaphorical “curtain” within the images, echoing the way Soviet history has shaped gender identity.

The project combines analogue photography with a textile curtain to push the boundaries of visual storytelling.