The exhibition of the award-winning social awareness campaign NOT ANOTHER SECOND at the Watermark Art Pavilion at Westwood Village, Los Angeles, has been extended through August 31, 2023
In June the world wide LGBTQ+ community celebrates Pride Month and with it their diversity as well as the achievements of the last decades: recognition, equality, justice. At the same time, celebrities such as Sir Elton John are regretting about »a growing wave of anger and homophobia«. LGBTQ+ seniors born before 1950 have witnessed the moving and often heartbreaking history of the movement, from the Stonewall riots to the AIDS crisis to marriage equality. They have stood up for their rights and those around them, often at great personal risk and despite the prejudice, restrictions and hatred they have faced over long periods of time. Increasingly, they face specific challenges such as discrimination, isolation and lack of access to adequate healthcare or care facilities that meet their needs.
NOT ANOTHER SECOND initiated by Watermark Retirement Communities, who has been recognized again as the »Best Senior Living Community in the US« in 2023, and SAGE, the largest and oldest nonprofit advocating service for the rights of LGBT+ seniors. NOT ANOTHER SECOND introduces us to people who are role models for younger generations in the struggle for recognition and equality through their openness regarding their personal experiences,
Personally and as a professional photographer, I felt honored and privileged having been commissioned by acclaimed New York agency RXM Creative supporting such a significant topic and helping to produce a nationwide social awareness campaign, the first and most recognized one of its kind. The intensive sessions, which the team and myself found extremely touching due to the moving stories about hope, humanity and resilience as well as about many »lost years« full of self-doubt, discrimination and stigmatization, took place on three dates in October and November 2019 in Brooklyn, New York and Tucson, Arizona.
During the corona pandemic the exhibition premiered in 2021, at the Watermark at Brooklyn Heights by generating extensive media attention. The event had been extended four times and has been featured in New York Times, Cool Hunting, New Yorker and Guardian. Time Out New York voted NOT ANOTHER SECOND the »Best Exhibition of the Month«. Since the end of January 2023, a scaled down version can be seen in the Art Pavilion of the Watermark at Westwood Village in Los Angeles until August 31, 2023.
NOT ANOTHER SECOND has been nominated and awarded several times, e.g. at the New York Festivals, the Webby Awards or the London Portrait of Humanity Award and was currently at the 70th Cannes Lions Festival in the category Direct Culture & Context | Social Behavior nominated.