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Photo: © Hannah Reyes Morales, for The New York Times - Al Enriquez (86) looks through a curtain in the Golden Gays’ home in Manila, the Philippines, July 18, 2022
The new exhibition Queer Havens by World Press Photo, in collaboration with Pride Photo, was scheduled to open in Amsterdam in summer 2025.
Since the 70s, LGBTQIA+ communities around the world have worked to create environments where they can live freely, gather, and express themselves—away from the discrimination and hostility many still face every day. Often described as “safe spaces,” these are both physical and emotional refuges where queer people can exist without fear and where joy, resistance, and connection can flourish.
Queer Havens was announced as an exhibition that would explore what safe spaces look like, how they are built, and what they mean to the people who create and inhabit them.
Photo by Tamta Gokadze: Kesaria, a Georgian transgender woman, was found brutally murdered in her apartment on the night of September 18, 2024. She was a well-known Georgian transgender model - one of the first in the deeply conservative country to openly come out. The fate of Kesaria, who is not the first transgender woman to be murdered in Georgia, brought not only sorrow but also fear into the hearts of other transgender women.
Co-curated by Pride Photo, the exhibition was set to bring together eleven powerful photographic projects—five from the World Press Photo archive and six from Pride Photo—each offering its own perspective on what it means for an LGBTQIA+ person to find or create safety today.
The fate of Kesaria brought not only sorrow but also fear into the hearts of other transgender women.
The announced works, comprising more than forty photographs, were set to show a wide range of LGBTQIA+ experiences—from chosen families, intimate relationships, and nightlife to reclaiming LGBTQIA+ history, personal transitions, and remembrance—and reveal how LGBTQIA+ communities envision and create safe spaces.
Ky Smiley: “Learning how to discuss my top surgery with my little brother has been simpler and more enlightening than I could have imagined. He helped me during recovery and I can not be more thankful. We have both benefited from our creation of a safe space for dialogue and I know it will help in both of our journeys of growth and acceptance.”
Dates and Location
The exhibition was scheduled to take place before and during Amsterdam Pride 2025 from July 12 to August 10, both outdoors in Westerpark and indoors at Het Meterhuisje in Amsterdam. A public program was planned for the exhibition’s opening day.
Queer Havens, organized in collaboration with Pride Photo, was announced as a unique opportunity to experience and celebrate the endless diversity within and among LGBTQI+ voices, visions, and identities in a nuanced way.
Photo by Maika Elan: In 2012, the Vietnamese government announced it was considering recognizing same-sex marriage and Vietnam's first pride parade took place in Hanoi. By 2015, a bill lifting the ban on same-sex marriage was in effect, but these unions are not legally recognized. In 2020, Human Rights Watch reported discrimination against Vietnam's LGBTQ+ youth caused by the common belief that same-sex attraction is a mental health condition. However, same-sex marriages are still not recognized. In this story, Maika Elan aimed to capture the casual daily activities of LGBTQ+ couples to evoke feelings of familiarity and empathy.
This exhibition was made possible in part by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Cultuurfonds, and Stadsdeel West.
