Where the Noise Doesn’t Get
In the exhibition “Like a River”, Daniel Jack Lyons creates collaborative portraits with the LGBTQ youth of the Brazilian Amazon.
Invited to visit Casa do Rio, a youth center in the Brazilian Amazon, Daniel Jack Lyons decided to spend time with queer and trans kids, who are struggling to find their own place in a community plagued by issues of environmental degradation, violence, and discrimination. Coming to the site with a background in social anthropology and being a member of the LGBTQ community himself, he chose a collaborative approach for this challenge.
The kids could choose the clothing, location and pose of the portraits, and this dynamic created a rare safe space of expression, allowing them to have a say in the way they are represented. Their tattoos, clothing and the overwhelming strength of the surrounding nature create images that fluctuate between modernity and tradition, whose atmosphere feels suspended in a magical dimension where the noise and violence of the rest of the world can’t penetrate.
“Like a River” by Daniel Jack Lyons is on view at the Église des frères prêcheurs as part of
Arles Festival until August 28. The homonymous book is published by
Loose Joints and available at the price of £36.00
