About Us

Description

About Us is a portrait-based exhibition by Finnish-Polish photographer Aleksandra Lemke that invites viewers to encounter the layered and often unseen realities of QBIPOC individuals—Queer, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color—living in Finland. Through carefully constructed, deeply intimate images, Lemke opens a space rarely afforded to her subjects: a space of self-definition, dignity, and quiet resistance.

The exhibition challenges the dominant narrative that LGBTQIA+ identities in Finland are homogeneously white, while also confronting the harmful perception of racialized minorities as threats to liberal values. Instead, About Us reveals the nuanced lives of those who carry multiple marginalized identities and continue to experience intersecting forms of discrimination: racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia. These overlapping structures of exclusion are not abstract—they directly shape access to safety, joy, love, and belonging.

Aleksandra Lemke’s lens is both soft and defiant. Her portraits reject voyeurism in favor of collaboration and care. Her subjects meet the camera with clarity and pride, reminding us that representation is not simply about visibility, but about who gets to define the terms of their presence.

This body of work is a call for intersectional justice. It invites viewers—especially those within the LGBTQIA+ community and its allies—to confront internal biases, question who is centered, and recommit to a solidarity that goes beyond slogans. About Us is not only about identity—it is about power, the systems that shape it, and the radical act of reclaiming one’s story.