Forbidden City

The governments of many countries I've dreamed of exploring with my camera since I was young (Egypt and Tunisia, especially) would like to put me in jail -- or worse -- because I'm a gay man. This unfortunate reality of the world was particularly a concern during my time working at Instinct Magazine as an editor and travel correspondent. We always had to research and triple confirm that a potential feature destination wasn't going to, you know, throw me or our readers in a labor camp. As I've grown into a solo photographer and continue to travel and shoot professionally, it seems the global situation has only gotten worse for gay travelers. Beginning in late winter 2017, I said “screw it, and decided to finally make photography in countries where I would be persecuted for the "crime" of being gay — with the help of Google Street View. These images reflect what I would likely produce if I had happened to have been born straight and was able to travel to these places in the physical world. Locations shown in this submission: Egypt: Being gay is punishable by prison United Arab Emirates: Being gay is punishable by death Tunisia: Being gay is punishable by prison Ghana: Being gay is punishable by prison Russian Federation: Being gay is punishable by prosecution ranging from fines to concentration camps