Aperture Conversations: Lives in Transition

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Reenvisioning queer lives and the modern family through photography. Pictures and discussion with Slobodan Randjelović, Jurek Wajdowicz, and Chris Boot.

Coinciding with the publication of Lives in Transition: LGBTQ Serbia by The New Press, its author Slobodan Randjelović will present photographs and stories from Serbia. Jurek Wajdowicz will then provide the broader context of the Diverse Humanity LGBTQ-themed book series, a one-of-a-kind project featuring documentary photography exploring gender diversity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, of which Lives in Transition is the latest installment. Chris Boot will then chair a discussion with the speakers and the audience about photography’s contribution to the evolution of queer identities and human rights.

Slobodan Randjelović is a Serbian-born architect currently working in New York City. Also a photographer, he is a passionate supporter of LGBTQ rights, environmental conservation, and the arts. The author of Lives in Transition: LGBTQ Serbia (The New Press), he serves on the board of the Arcus Foundation, the Gallmann Memorial Foundation, New York Live Arts, and the Design Committee of the Park Avenue Armory.

Jurek Wajdowicz, art director and photographer, began his career as a graphic artist in Łódź, Poland, where he earned his master of arts degree in graphic design and photography at the Lodz Academy of Fine Arts. Now living in New York City, he works with international humanitarian organizations and leading non-profit institutions around the world through his EWS studio (in partnership with Lisa LaRochelle). In the 50th Anniversary Survey of Graphic Design USA magazine, Wajdowicz was selected among the “Most Influential Graphic Designers of the Past 50 Years.”

Chris Boot has been the executive director of Aperture Foundation since 2011. Previously the director of Magnum Photos, in London and New York, and editorial director at Phaidon Press, he formed his own photobook enterprise, Chris Boot Ltd., in 2001, publishing books by, among others, Luc Delahaye, Sunil Gupta, Jacqueline Hassink, Tim Hetherington, and Martin Parr. He is the editor of George Dureau Photographs (Aperture, 2016).

Lives in Transition is the tenth title in the critically acclaimed photobook series Diverse Humanity, published by The New Press, about LGBTQ communities around the world. Previous titles include Revealing Selves: Transgender Portraits from Argentina by Kike Arnal; Out: LGBTQ Poland by Maciek Nabrdalik; The Kids: The Children of LGBTQ Parents in the USA by Gabriela Herman; Edges of the Rainbow: LGBTQ Japan by Michel Delsol and Haruku Shinozaki; Delhi: Communities of Belonging by Sunil Gupta and Charan Singh; Pride and Joy: Taking the Streets of New York City by Jurek Wajdowicz; Five Bells: Being LGBT in Australia by Jenny Papalexandris; Bordered Lives: Transgender Portraits from Mexico by Kike Arnal; and Lyudmila and Natasha: Russian Lives by Misha Friedman.

The photobook series is a unique collaboration between the Arcus Foundation, Emerson, Wajdowicz Studios, and The New Press. diversehumanity.com

Image: Slobodon Randjelović, Lives in Transition: LGBTQ Serbia, The New Press, 2018

Aperture Foundation’s public programs are supported, in part, by generous donations from our Board of Trustees; our Members and other individuals; corporate and private foundations, including the Grace Jones Richardson Trust and the Jane Smith Turner Foundation; and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.