Su Cassiano
Turkey
Su Cassiano is a self-taught award winning photographer currently based in Istanbul, Türkiye. Su studied linguistic, literature and cinema in Paris. After working as a movie critic and managing an underground dvd shop for a Parisian editor, Su decided to make documentaries instead of watching them.
Specialized in narrative portraiture and documentary, their work is characterized by the intimate relationship and gentle collaboration created with the people they portray. Their story telling aims to deconstruct harmful stereotypes while making dissident voices emerge, often engaging with underrepresented or misrepresented communities.
Su uses long form story telling and focuses on what’s happening to communities beyond the headlines, and in the aftermaths. Su’s work often centers on human rights, may it be gender based violence, queer rights or refugees resilience.
Instagram• SERIES •
“Love Harder” is an ongoing, long-term series which explores the positioning of queer identities in relation to religion in the conservative Mediterranean cultural regions. This project maps out the multiplicity of queer people that continue to exist within cultures that try to deny or delegitimize their identities. This project takes place in various countries around the Mediterranean basin, including Malta, Turkey, Morocco and France, and works with LGBTQIA+ people from Catholic and Muslim backgrounds. Each portrait acts as a window into the life of a queer person, who was raised within a religious cultural environment. Some of who were embraced by, and chose to embrace, these communities in return. Whilst for others, these cultural traditions have led to feelings of rejection and disconnect.
