Sistaaz of the Castle - Duran Lantink x Jan Hoek

Sistaaz of the Castle - Duran Lantink x Jan Hoek, highlight at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Amsterdam

Photographer Jan Hoek and fashion designer Duran Lantink present Sistaaz of the Castle, a project about the colourful looks of transgender sex workers that roam the streets of Cape Town, South Africa.
Together they created a series of photographs and a fashion collection around their fashionable appearances, and their ability to make the most exuberant creations of everything they find.
From 13 January till 20 January the project was on display at Foam.
The local sex workers’ organisation, S.W.E.A.T., gave Jan Hoek and Duran Lantink the opportunity to meet and collaborate with their transgender support group Sistaazhood. For this project, Hoek and Lantink zoom in on six girls from the community: Coco (25), Cleopatra (23) Sulaiga (30), Gabby (29) Flavinia (33) and Joan Collins (57).
Most of the girls are homeless, living under a bridge beside the castle of Cape Town. Jan Hoek photographed their lives and their outfits. The photos also serve as a lookbook for the collection of Duran Lantink. The designer was inspired by the creative ability of the girls to produce beautiful creations from found pieces of garments. He recognised a similarity to his own process, using different recycling methods and collage techniques.
The artists were also interested in how the girls would want to look like if they had unlimited possibilities. One of the girls would like to work in a luxurious Victorian brothel. The 57-year-old Joan Collins dreams of a wedding dress and a third wants to become Miss Africa. All these fantasies are translated into a dream-couture capsule collection by Lantink, which is also photographed by Hoek.

Duran Lantink (1987) is the wild child of fashion in the Netherlands. In 2013 he graduated at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and is now studying the Master Fashion Matter at the Sandberg Institute. His collections, styling and exhibitions often contain honest messages and are a dizzying remix of anything that inspires him. Similar to the South-African girls of Sistaaz of the Castle, Duran uses different recycle methods. His style is raw and colourful and dark at the same time. With his towering 3D printed shoes, he made national and international acclaim. The shoes are exhibited a.o. at the Louvre in Paris and the MET in New York. As a stylist and designer, Duran has worked for several magazines, such as Vogue, Glamcult and D&A Mexico.
http://duranlantink.com/

Jan Hoek (1984) photographs amateur models, mentally ill homeless people in Africa who look like kings, a girl with no arms and legs that constantly wants to be photographed, heroin addicts with a modelling dream, or people he found through an advertisement on Marktplaats. Jan Hoek graduated in 2012 at Image and Language at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. His work is exhibited in a.o. Foam in Amsterdam, FOMU in Antwerp and in St. Petersburg, Shenzhen and Lagos. Jan Hoek is represented by Galerie Ron Mandos Amsterdam. 
http://janhoek.net/

photography: Peter Stigter

Hermione Flynn - FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015

HERMIONE FLYNN - (IN)DIFFERENCE

Looking back to the 7th edition FASHIONCLASH Festival is a real pleasure, especially when things collide into timeless moments. When fashion becomes more than just clothes and skips a heartbeat because we can just be who ever we want to be without looking away. When fashion places a mirror to confront us with what beauty really means. The moment when transgender model Gia Bab, divine human being, steps on the stage it always impresses. But this time it was everything and more.
Conceptual designer Hermione Flynn staged a catwalk performance with minimal but highly effective acts, expressing her collection '(In)Difference'.
Taking unisex to a a higher level this collection explores gender codes and gender inequality.


Read more about (In)difference concept: here

http://www.hermioneflynn.com

Àlvaro Laiz Photography

Photographer Àlvaro Laiz travels around the world to document transgender people living in hidden
societies from the nightclubs of Mongolia to the swamps of Venezuela.  By documenting his everyday lives, from crowded underground clubs to the quiet sanctuary of his subjects' private homes Àlvaro examines the realities of living in a society that has little to no tolerance for sexual diversity.

In 2011 he captured stunning imagery of the transgender population living in Mongolia in his series Transmongolian. For Àlvaro Laiz, Transmongolian was only the first step in a long-term project focusing on transgender people in different nomadic societies all over the globe.

For the second part of this project, Wonderland, he spent two years in the swamps of Venezuela photographing one of the last native South American people – the Warao.The Warao consider select individuals neither man or woman – they are called Tida Wena. In contrast to Mongolian society, absolute inclusion of the Tida Wena in this indigenous society dates back to pre-Columbian traditions.

" I began working in Mongolia with transgender people and then I got to know there was another point of view. Some anthropologists call it the “Two Spirits” or Berdache theory. While I was working in Venezuela I came to know an anthropologist specialized in the Warao people – we found a common language in our love for photography. We always think about transgender people as something new and related to the cities (drugs, hiv, etc) and I wanted to change that. "

Yet in the last 50 years, the tribes have become more susceptible to outside influences:

Before the late 20th century, the term berdache was widely used by anthropologists as a generic term to indicate “two-spirit” or transgender individuals. In Native American societies, berdaches played an important role both religiously and economically. They were given specific roles in their religion and were not expected to support their family like a male would, but rather they were required to do some of the women’s work and portray the behaviors and clothing of a woman. Historically, Tida Wena have been well integrated into the life of their tribes, and have often held revered and honored positions within them, but things have changed during the last 50 years.
The Warao tribes are extremely sensitive to the outdoor influence. There are a fundamental fact that is strongly complicating their survival: a few independent investigations indicate that a range in between 40% and 80% of the Warao tribe are infected with HIV, whereas Venezuelan government does not support official numbers. Having HIV [has] become a taboo and many people refuses to receive treatment, and eventually face death to avoid social pressure […] Tida Wena (transgenders) and homosexuals have been often rejected and [are[ accused of being responsible for this pandemic which is devastating the warao people.

Watch the haunting teaser for Wonderland and see more of Laiz’s work.
http://www.alvarolaiz.com


Wonderland Eng from Alvaro Laiz on Vimeo.

Àlvaro Laiz has developed his work between Africa, Asia and South America cooperating with NGO´s and Foundations such us International Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders or World Vision. His photographs have been published in national and international media such us Sunday Times Magazine, Colors Magazine, National Geographic, CNN, Foreign Policy, XL Semanal, EL Pais, Ojo de Pez or Marie Claire.
His work conceives photography as a tool to give civil society in post-conflict zones the chance to be heard, exploring the environment, costumes and traditions of those people at risk of exclusion. Master in Visual Arts at Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, his work focuses on realities usually ignored by mass media.
Àlvaro Laiz  is also co-founder of ANHUA.
all images www.alvarolaiz.com