Page 80 - S/ Summer 2021

VOICES
ON THE
MARGINS
Dustin Thierry’s photography is a medium for healing and change. BY NAJMA ENO
In his ongoing archive, fittingly
entitled Opulence, photographer Dustin Thierry is documenting the striking beauty of the European underground ballroom scene. When the artist was just
14, he left the Caribbean island of Curaçao for the Netherlands. His younger brother, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, had dreams of one day following him to Europe, but tragically took his life before he had the chance. According to Thierry, “Opulence became a way of processing this loss, this shared trauma.”
Like Opulence, ballroom as a subculture also had its beginnings in the graver realities of racialized queer lives. Pushed to the margins of society, the ballroom scene has become
a space for oppressed people to cultivate a relentless spirit of resistance, creativity, and community. “With Opulence, it was really me trying to get rid of the stigma that we have around the Black LGBTQ+ community in the Caribbean,” says the artist, “and demanding
a change and equality for all, and addressing social injustice.” Thus the stunning series, featuring vividly dignified black and white portraits, became not only an ode to his late brother, but also a way to amplify oppressed voices. “Photography,” says Thierry, “became a means for me to let the voices of the unsung or the unheard be more out there.”
FROM TOP: Opulence, Carsten Mizrahi celebrating his Sex Siren Grand Prize trophy at the ‘Peoples Choice Awards Gala’, Paris, 2019. Opulence, Kendrick Mugler, European Father from the House of Miyake Mugler after snatching the Grand Prize for Best Dressed, Paris, 2019.
In another project, entitled Dreaming Above the Atlantic, Thierry photographs and interviews members of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora living in Amsterdam. “The Nether- lands oftentimes is overlooked for its diasporic heritage,” he says. Through photography,
he is able to shed light on these stories while connecting to his own experiences as a Black artist in the Netherlands. “All my projects are me using photography as a way of healing and understanding where I belong, where
I’m coming from, and how I relate to the diaspora,” says Thierry. “I think it’s very important for our voices to be heard and not to be silenced, and I think photography can be a medium for that.”
FINAL SAY
80 • SMAGAZINEOFFICIAL.COM
Photos courtesy of Dustin Thierry.