While forced to stay home, living as hermits, we unlocked our fears and our desires for a brighter future. Who wants to live inside forever? Are we designed to remain catarpillars, or do we aspire becoming butterflies? It’s only human to break out, to move on, to introduce ourselves to the world.
This issue is therefore concerned with the feeling of arrest and the aspiration of setting free, presenting a variety of people who all sense that it is about time to become liberated; to get back in touch again, with renewed spirit and courage. They are feeling ready to face the many challenges that life imposes on us.
This is what’s on stake: The migrants being caught by the authorities while attempting to cross the Mexican-USA border, as witnessed by photographer Ken Light in the 1980s, were all in dire straits at the time. Yet, in their eyes, you can sense their determination. They have been captured, but were not seized forever.
The people of Cuba are all too familiar with a life of struggle too, but when Vincent Delbrouck recently returned to his beloved island and encountered a group of youngsters in a park, he could sense ‘an infectious joy’. Similarly, such a positive energy reflects from the intimate portraits that Jilian Freyer made of her American peers. Young people all over the world seemingly are equiped with a sense of hope and a need to bond.
Whether you live freely in the Amazonian jungle or are an incarcerated jailbird, all people in this world are somehow interconnected. But there is also the uncanny notion of being systematically confined – enforced by law – which is closely related to a very complex society we have build for ourselves. As becomes clear from the articles and interviews included in this issue.
GUP Magazine also continues to include a guide to upcoming events and an recently published books. The cover is by Justine Tjallinks, allowing a sneak peak into her latest work. Altogether, we can only come to this conclusion: talent obvisioulsy remains uncontained, omnipresent and spreading around freely!
The Editorial Team
Cover Image: Justine Tjallinks
GUP#66 will include works of:
Cecilia Sordi Campos (BR) / Edgar Martins (PT) / Jillian Freyer (US) / Justine Tjallinks (NL) / Ken Light (US) / Leonard Suryajaya (ID) / Misha Vallejo (EC) / Prin Rodriguez (PE) / Ryan Weideman (US) / Silvia De Giorgi (IT) / Thomas Sauvin (FR) / Vincent Delbrouck (BE)
Discover more about GUP #66 limited edition here.