Lia Papouis is a queer photographic artist based in Birmingham. After finishing her undergraduate studies in communication, media and culture she moved to Cardiff to begin pursuing her dream of becoming a photographer. Her interest in photographing and exploring queerness began in 2018 when started photographing the journey of a friend, and writing her thesis on feminism and queer photographic practise.
Last year, she completed a project entitled ‘Urban Drag’ which explores queerness in urban spaces; a photograph from that project is currently on display in Birmingham’s Victoria Square as part of an outdoor exhibition, ‘Open’. Her latest photographic work is related to "intimacy, gender and performativity.”
Lia tells Midlands Rainbow, “I examine how photography has the power to fight sexist oppression by situating the feminist gaze at centre stage. Photography is able to convert private life and struggles into a public matter - making social and political statements, changing notions of what is considered ‘normal’."
“I am currently photographing queer women and exploring femininity through queerness. I aim to challenge notions on how femininity is perceived in society and show the different forms of femininity by exploring individual stories."
“Queer femininity for me is all about accepting myself as I am and not trying to fit any forms of femininity that the society enforces on me and women in general. Femininity to me is to be allowed to wear anything I want and present as a different person externally while my energy and the person inside remains the same. Queer femininity is all about accepting that I can be vulnerable, soft and caring without feeling that it can be considered a weakness. Being queer and feminine is ultimately removing any expectation from myself to fit into patriarchal norms.
“I feel that queer women have not been given enough space so far and especially in relation to their feminine part. As part of that community I would like to share my story through stories of other queer women too.”
For those interested in taking part as a subject of this project, Lia is asking for queer women to pose for photographs in Digbeth, alongside writing some words about how they experience their femininity through queerness. Get in touch at documentaryphotoprojects@gmail.com providing two photographs of you and a note about where you are based.
You can also find out more about Lia Papouis on her website: https://liapapouis.com/
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