Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride")

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project © Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project © Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project View all images ↓
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Brazil is the most dangerous place on Earth for queer people—a violence deepened by years of far-right rule. "Tenha Orgulho" weaves together five years of visual and written testimonies from a silent yet deafening resistance : to love in a time of hate.

Half of the world’s LGBTQIA+ murders are committed in Brazil. This violence escalated dramatically during the far-right rule of Jair Bolsonaro.

For five years I travelled around Brazil photographing the lives of my queer friends, piecing together “Tenha Orgulho”; which translates as “Take Pride”.

I wanted to distance myself from stereotypes of latino queerness: hyper-sexualized bodies, fetishised prostitution, squalid lifestyles. I ask each person where and how they’d like to be photographed — which led me from favelas to waterfalls, towerblocks to rainforests. Each portrait aims to make the person within it feel proud. In addition, I recorded interviews with each person photographed. I see my practice as a tool to dismantle colonial dynamics, in creative collaboration with my subjects.

The portraits are intertwined with photographs of Brazil’s rich flora, suggesting an interconnection between Man's oppression of queerness and sexuality, and his brutality towards Nature — as violences all rooted in a same patriarcal system. Under Bolsonaro's far right rule, huge swathes of the Amazon went up in flames.

Finally, the work contains a textile element. “Faixas de rafia” are emblematic of Brazilian popular culture. Banners hand-painted by artisans upon plastic canvas, they're seen hoisted up all about the country. I commissioned local artisans to paint “faixas” with phrases chosen by the LGBTQIA+ community. We then draped them in symbolic places, where I photographed them.

Tenha Orgulho is a powerful document of queer resistance—proof of what happens when the far right rises, and what we're fighting for. “Tenha Orgulho” portrays a community which is both completely disarmed and utterly disarming. In an increasingly polarized world, this resistance is silent yet deafening: to love in the time of hate.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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"LGBT+PHOBIA CAME ASHORE WITH THE CARAVELS."The roots of homophobia and intolerance in Brazil run deep. As a society built on slavery, for two centuries institutions have venerated the figure of the bandeirante, i.e. coloniser: white, Christian, patriarchal.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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Laura & Luiza have always kept their relationship secret from their parents. “My dad’s profile pic on WhatsApp is a photo of him and Bolsonaro.” Luiza explains.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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This series began shooting my inner circle in Rio de Janeiro. As the project grew, I traveled to São Paulo and Salvador, and later into the hinterlands of Bahia, Goiás, Brasília and Minas Gerais, creating a diverse archive of queer experiences during this highly politicized time.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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Abel was born in an indigenous village in the Atlantic rainforest. He explains : “The concept of ‘man versus woman’ is Eurocentric and colonial. There’s more than three genders in various indigenous cultures, with the idea of both masculine and feminine energy being present in the same body.”

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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"TO LOVE IS A VERB, AN ACTION, AND A DECOLONIAL STRATEGY”. We hung this in Praça XV: the historic pier where thousands of ships from the transatlantic slave trade arrived in Rio de Janeiro; once the largest slave port in the Americas.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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This bleached hair is emblematic of black favela culture. Although Brazil has made undeniable progress in the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights, this progress reaches too little of the peripheral and poorest communities.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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Under Bolsonaro’s administration, 34000 km2 of the Amazon rainforest were burnt down. "Tenha Orgulho" weaves a parallel between man's oppression of sexuality and his brutality towards nature; as violences all rooted in a same patriarcal system.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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Jade took me to a hidden waterfall in the Tijuca forest. She says: “I’m always in a state of perpetual change, death and rebirth. I live these cycles constantly, I think I feed off this power a lot. This waterfall where we are reminds me of that.”

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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Dusk falls from my window on the 31st of October 2022: the day following Lula’s victory in the second round of the presidential elections. He beat Bolsonaro by 1.8% of the votes.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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In 2018 in Rio de Janeiro, Junior was beaten up by a group of homophobic men. In between insults, his attackers were heard shouting: “This is to make my vote count”.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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Whilst half of the world’s homophobic murders are committed in Brazil, the country also hosts the largest gay pride parade on Earth, and one of the most iconic gay beaches. Cactuses there bear the names and initials of many lovers carved into their flesh.

© Kamila K Stanley - In Brazil, the life expectancy of a black trans woman is 35 years. Miranda is 26.
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In Brazil, the life expectancy of a black trans woman is 35 years. Miranda is 26.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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When we met in 2018, Gabe identified as male, but regularly performed as a dragqueen. Years later, Gabe now identifies as a trans woman. The skills she learned during her years as a dragqueen helped her become a professional hair and makeup artist.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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When Bolsonaro soared to power, fake news stories flooded the internet, mostly to discredit his opponent Fernando Haddad. One conspiracy alleged Haddad had distributed “Gay kits” containing “mamadeiras eróticas”: baby bottles with phallic-shaped dummies.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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Originally from the region of São Paulo, Laru is a non-binary Ashtanga teacherwho moved to a secluded eco-community in Bahia, in the North of Brazil.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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I met Avellar in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. He told me : "I want to be represented as black queer person. As a strong, black queer person. And as someone that has found themselves again — after going through a lot of things."

© Kamila K Stanley - “ PARADISE IS TO BE PRACTICED AND NOT PREACHED ”
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“ PARADISE IS TO BE PRACTICED AND NOT PREACHED ”

© Kamila K Stanley - Abel in my garden in Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro.
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Abel in my garden in Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
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The Atlantic Forest is considered one of the richest areas in biodiversity in the world. Today, 90% of its original territory has been destroyed.

© Kamila K Stanley - Image from the Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") photography project
i

I want to step away from stereotypes of latino queerness: hyper-sexualized bodies, fetishised prostitution, squalid lifestyles. I ask each person where and how they’d like to be photographed. Each portrait aims to make the person within it feel proud.

Tenha Orgulho ("Take Pride") by Kamila K Stanley

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