Ukraine: In Search of Lost Identity
© Marina Frolova
Marina Frolova: UGLY project. Nikita (2018)
View Exhibition: Ugly project. Nikita
Homosexuality in the Soviet Union was a criminal offense, and LGBT community lived a covert and secretive life. Criminal liability was lifted in post-Soviet Ukraine, but the community remained condemned and ostracized. As Ukraine started its movement towards European values and human rights standards LGBT rights have become an important issue in the society.
UGLY project. Nikita was shot in Kherson, a provincial city in the south of Ukraine where xenophobic and homophobiс attitudes among the inhabitants are high. Born out of the friendship and trust between the photographer and her model, a slender androgynous-looking young man, the project focuses on the hardships to adjust to the society where the likes of Nikita are bullied and harassed.
View Exhibition: Ugly project. Nikita
About Marina Frolova
Marina Frolova was born in Kherson in Ukraine. She lived in Sevastopol, Crimea from 2000 until the peninsula’s annexation in 2014. She now lives in Kyiv.