Hello friends, readers and supporters,

I am a photographer who, during the last 25 years, has realized a large number of projects in Russia, Eastern Europe and South America. These works were never commissioned, they always based on topics which I was fascinated by and usually traced photographically for several years. Many of them were presented in exhibitions and photographic books.

What is it all about?

DIE AMAMZONEN DES AMAZONAS is my current photographic project which focuses on transsexual people. Since the pictures have already been displayed in numerous exhibitions and received an incredibly positive response, I now intended to publish them in a high-quality volume of photographs. For this, I need your support.

How did the project DIEAMAZONEN DES AMAZONAS come about?

When in 2010 I followed the tracks of Alexander von Humboldt across the South American Andes for the photographic project SONNENSTRASSE, I frequently met trans women of vigorous personality and great pride, who, despite their massive social debasing, insisted on their individual way of life.

These encounters made a deep impression on me and triggered my next photographic work.

Why I have chosen the Amazon region as a setting for it, explains the following story:

Searching for El Dorado, the legendary land of gold, the conquistador Francisco de Orellana is attacked by female indigenous warriors in 1542. A monk writes in his journal: “Then we entered the kingdom of the Amazons. They fought against us in the vanguard of their people, with long hair and almost naked, armed with bow and arrow and as brave as ten male warriors.”

The ancient Greek myth of the Amazons rekindles – heroic female warriors who had their right breast burnt out for a better steadying of their bows. Subsequently, the river the expedition was travelling on is named river of the Amazons, Rio Amazonas.

Therefore, the Amazons or, translated, the Breastless became patrons of my project. At the same time they symbolise the courage of the trans women in the Amazon region. It is the courage of female warriors, who resist social discrimination and, far too often, physical violence as well.

How did and how will things proceed?

In 2013 and 2014 I witnessed the lives of these women for over six months.

In my pictures I wanted to counter social hardship with poetry and tell a tale of strange beauty.

For the photo session the portrayed women have created a representative self-image through clothing and make-up. The frequent use of camouflage-like make-up and the vivid accentuation of particular parts of the face generate a proximity to painting, which is sustained by the selection of backgrounds. Through these arrangements the women are transformed into artificial characters, whose melancholic beauty, however, on closer examination experiences fractures, without taking their dignity from them.

Additionally, I composed still life photographies, in which exotic fruit arrangements are disturbed by animal fragments. Beauty and vulnerability, paradise and agony are confronted as a metaphor for the life of the protagonists.

Why support this project?

With your assistance an exceptional book can be produced and offer these trans women a stage, on which they can be recognised by a broad public. For this is also an issue the book is concerned with: the presentation of a world of difference and diversity, the expression of tolerance and the struggle against discrimination and tabooing.

Therefore, the Peruvian self-help organisation Laboratorio LGTBI de memorias, arte y acción política de la amazonía which advocates the rights of transgenders will receive 50 copies of the edition for their work.

What will the book DIE AMAZONEN DES AMAZONAS look like?

- 104 pages in format 24,4 x 28 cm, total edition of 500 copies,

- offset printing with expensively designed hardcover (printed linen, embossed),

- uncoated paper (Munken Lynx designer stationary, 200g/sqm), thread-sewn,

- about 45 portraits and 20 still life photographies, which create a poetic arc of tension and are complemented by the protagonist’s personal accounts.

The volume of photographs will be published in German and English. Every copy is provided with a slipcase.

The estimated date of publication is the third quarter of 2015.

What will happen to your money?

The money is completely and exclusively dedicated to the production of the photographic volume. In case the targeted sum is exceeded, the book will be published in an Spanish translation as well.

Thanks to a sponsorship of the LAND BRANDENBURG LOTTO GmbH the expenses for graphics and lithography are already covered.

Thank you very much for your support. I am confident that through your collective effort the book can be successfully realized. Aside from your financial backing I would also be very glad if you could help spread the information about the project among your friends, colleagues, relatives and (social) networks.

Every individual contribution counts and, at the same time, sets an example.

Thank you so much!

Frank Gaudlitz

www.frank-gaudlitz.de

In cooperation with                                   sponsored by