Exhibition reveals reality of LGBTI communities living in light and shadow

Belgian-Ivorian photographer Raymond Dakoua’s new exhibition in Johannesburg explores the realities of LGBTI communities in Mozambique and Ivory Coast, writes Ntombenhle Shezi

Communities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex people in Mozambique and Ivory Coast are the focus of Raymond Dakoua's latest body of work, an exhibition titled A Place to Call Their Own.

"The best way to tell stories without being seen is to be a photographer," said Dakoua.

This was why he had decided on the medium, he said as he settled into a three-way conversation translated by Johannesburg-based film programmer Katarina Hedrén.

The French-speaking photographer's interest in the project was sparked by the increasing number of LGBTI refugees coming to Belgium, where he lives, from his home country, Ivory Coast.

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He decided to focus on the LGBTI communities in Ivory Coast and Mozambique, where homosexuality was only recently decriminalised.

In both countries, LGBTI people were able to live relatively freely - at least when they were with one another.

He started documenting the communities in 2014. In Mozambique he reached out to advocacy groups such as the Mozambique Association for Sexual Minority Rights, which connected him with the right people.

As he worked he realised that a lot of the people he interacted with in these communities were less comfortable and lived less openly when they were back in spaces where homosexuality was frowned upon.

This is what inspired the title of the exhibition. A Place to Call Their Own alludes to the spaces and adapted communities that constitute home.

The black-and-white images were captured at drag pageants, workshops and in other social contexts that Dakoua called "places of celebration and happiness".

One such image depicts a group of friends enjoying an afternoon at Modeste beach near Abidjan in Ivory Coast.

Dakoua said he was not usually invited into the homes of those he photographed.

"On the rare occasion when I was invited in to intimate environments, it would be with people who lived on their own as opposed to those who lived with their parents or families," said the photographer.

But the people he met were, he said, "working hard to claim their spaces and become more visible".

Dakoua, who identifies as heterosexual, stressed the importance of building trust between himself and his subjects.

How did he achieve this without making his subjects feel othered or eroticised?

"When I meet people, I am very open about what I do, who I am and what the ultimate result of my work will be," said Dakoua.

He said he met and talked to a lot of people, but only a few agreed to become part of the project because most were uncomfortable about being publicly identified with it.

Dakoua said he used his camera as a storytelling tool, but also wanted his body of work to start debates.

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His previous exhibition, Guantanamo, documented the lives of militants in an area of Abidjan named after the infamous US military prison - a group that supported former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo.

Dakoua stressed the importance of keeping his photographs as close to reality as possible, especially during the post-production and editing processes.

"I'm not concerned with editing pictures to make them look pretty. My images are not commercial photographs," he said.

One of the stories that has stayed with him and which is part of this exhibition is of a man who transitioned to a woman.

"When I met her in Canada she was happy because all she had wanted was to be called 'Madame'," said Dakoua.

• A Place to Call Their Own is on at the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg until March 17