The Ballad of Freedom (and All the Things Within)
Digital Zine
When my parents found out about my sexuality and that I hadn’t been wearing my hijab, they locked me up at their house. Four years later, I found a way to engage with my community. I created a visual journey of how they helped me see what my freedom could be.
In conservative Indonesia, fashion has become a means of communication for queer people to express their identity. Starting from a choice of clothes, accessories, hairstyles, and nails, to tattoos. It’s a refusal to comply with a cis-hetero society.
Freedom is not uniform; it's diverse and nuanced, shaped by culture, identity, and personal journey. Some women are still being pressured to wear hijab, and some queer people still face discrimination for the way they dress or even not allowed to express themselves.
This project is an ode, a ballad of what freedom looks and feels like to me. It is my story told through the visual stories of my community. An intimate peek at shared experiences between me, my friends, and anyone who in some ways is yearning for the freedom of being themselves.
A photographic version of this work was showcased at Youth Voices: Democracy Today by Photo-Demos during the Jakarta International Photo Festival 2023.