"The Symbiosis of Belonging" by Carla Meyer-Kleynhans

The Symbiosis of Belonging. Belonging to… a person, a place, a family, a moment. An ordinary moment belonging to you. To immerse yourself in a moment is to belong. To belong is to choose to devote yourself to loved ones who may or may not share your blood, to feel connected and share a history with a place, to live in a state of mutual symbiosis.
Influenced by the idea that queer belonging always exists within a marriage between the awareness of being watched and an attempt to exist at ease, my photographs aim to showcase a symbiosis between the private space and the spectacle: ordinary moments of belonging, disrupted by the presence of the photographer, who plays the role of an outsider. The tension between confronting those watching and immersing oneself in simply belonging is explored through this intimate and queer lens.