Happy Pride Month!

Peas in a Pod ©Matthew Papa

Written by: Federica Barrios Carbonell

Happy pride month from Musée Magazine! This June, let us celebrate the people in our lives in the LGBTQ+ community, reflect on the struggles that people with marginalized identities grapple with during everyday life, and most importantly, demonstrate how we are allies to community members. Let kindness and compassion guide you during this month. The strength and bravery displayed by the LGBTQ+ community in the past decade are incredible; they are to be seen as an example, to be honored, and to be validated. This year let us open our minds and our hearts to the stories shared by members of the community and make an effort to educate ourselves. Be aware of your role in society, respectfully have those uncomfortable conversations, and think about your personal bias and prejudice and how these may affect your opinions and interactions. It is good to be different, and it is important to accept those differences. Photographer Matthew Papa perfectly encompasses modern pride in his poetic snapshots of self-love and love between people.

Written by Matthew Papa:

This image is from 2020 and titled Peas in a Pod. It was made in upstate New York shortly after we came out of lockdown. We had been cooped up in our apartments for months and were suddenly outdoors and in nature which was freeing, but at the same time I couldn’t shake how threatening and unpredictable the natural world is… after all the virus is part of nature. I brought my equipment with me in case I felt like making pictures. All the conflicting feelings and crazy dreams the pandemic brought forth were channeled into somewhat surreal images. It turned out to be a fruitful coping strategy for dealing with the stresses of covid and reaffirmed my belief in the importance of community.

To view more of Matthew Papa’s work, visit his website or instagram.