Taboo. Borders.

“Members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” - Benedict Anderson Imagined Communities My project “Taboo. Borders.” is devoted to couples with different backgrounds, who live in countries where their relationships are considered taboo. For over two years, I photographed and conducted interviews with Arab-Jewish couples in Israel and Palestine as well as Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot couples on Cyprus. These two regions have one topic in common: individuals who fall in love with someone from across the border face abuse, threats, boycotts, and even violence. The family of a Druze man named Emad did not talk to him for half a year after finding out his Jewish partner was pregnant. Serkan, a Turkish Cypriot, lost his job, because he is married to a Greek Cypriot. Mohammad, a Palestinian Israeli, was beaten up repeatedly by members of the Jewish far-right organisation Lehava for being with a Jewish woman. Hatice, a Turkish woman, tried to commit suicide, because of societal and family pressures from having a relationship with a Greek Cypriot. While listening to people's stories, I asked myself: what are the physical — let's say visual — markers of boundaries that separate these couples in the eyes of their communities? This is how the borders part of my project was born. I started to photograph the West Bank barrier that divides Israel and Palestine; fences that separate Jewish settlements on Palestinian territories; cactus barriers surrounding displaced Palestinian villages. I also photographed borders between Israel and its neighbours, when this was relevant to the couples’ stories, as well as the United Nations-controlled buffer zone between the southern and northern parts of Cyprus. I intend to continue this project, telling stories of borders that became taboos or perhaps — about the taboos that became borders. What comes first is a disputable question that forms the core and essence of this work. My intention, however, goes further — to shine a light on the hardships of those who challenge taboos and borders.