Torsion (looking at gay pride)

This is not a photographic project about gay pride, but about how people look at it. The gay pride is an event in which the LGBT rights are claimed through an incisive and provocative form. Unlike almost all other forms of civil protests, the visual component of the event has a priority on those same claims. The visual component transmits the content. This makes the photographic representation of the gay pride predictable, spontaneously persuading amateurs and professionals to wield their cameras and those taking part to not miss a moment. I thought to focus on the immediate consequences of this motion on the viewers who attend the event. The objective is to analyze the meeting between the event and the reactions of people who are involved in this event. My goal became to look at those who are looking at the Gay Pride, who willingly, or not, were there. A sort of mirror game in which an “aesthetic demonstration” is watched by an audience, that can be watched by another audience through the photography lens. The LGBT people want to claim their rights in those demonstrations. Nevertheless, beyond them there is an accidental world of people who react: faces and expressions, curiosity and skepticism, gestures and actions. Obviously, it is neither a sociological essay nor a moral critic; just photography. But with these photos I hope to freeze a historical moment of approaching and repulsion concerning a minority and their rights. In Italy the large homosexual minority must compare itself with a controversial society and it is often subject to prejudice and discrimination. In spite of the western history which places Italy in a state of advanced industrialization and in a good condition of civil life, there are different reactions regarding this issue. Strong and popular traditional culture and the power of the Catholics have caused many disadvantages to homosexual people.