OWNING THE GAME: INTERSECTIONAL SELF-REPRESENTATION IN THE ROMA LGBTQ+ COMMUNITIES
"[...]This is what led me to engage with the visual self-representation of the Roma LGBTQ+ intersectional community, and together with members of the community, we are producing material that is capable of taking public space for ourselves.
[...] The Owning the Game images demonstrate why it is crucial to provide the opportunity for self-representation. The artists’ school of thought about themselves appears powerfully in these images. Many before me have already expressed that the representation made by someone outside the community reflects not so much about the minority group portrayed, as it does about how the author feels about the group.
The great majority of images of Roma appearing in public space are documents of photojournalism. These photos are taken spontaneously, and their subjects are completely passive, not taking part in the process at all. [...] Self-representation cannot serve to satisfy the curiosity of the majority society. We cannot subjugate our own aims for representation in the interest of offering them a glimpse into the life of an unusual and exciting community, where they do not have access. We need to make people aware that an authentic view can only be proffered by self-representation; anything else is a false illusion." -Joci Márton for ROMAMOMA by ERIAC
