Happy Pride Month! ?️‍? ❤️ ?️‍? ❤️⁠
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This month we profiled two wonderful photographers Pau Villanueva (@villanuevapau), and Bradley Secker (@bsecker). Their work is both beautiful and impactful. Through their lenses, a greater story of perspective is told in an effort to bring forth understanding and change for LGBTQ+ rights.⁠

Pau Villanueva

“I am Pau Villanueva. I am a queer Filipino photographer who documents the plight of society’s most vulnerable. My works are an exploration of the human condition – the discovery of self, of others, of the mountains of differences in between, and the empathy through which we cross them.⁠⁠
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I owe this year’s #PrideMonth to the colorful individuals that I have met along my photographic journey. A storyteller like me can only do so much in changing one’s perspective towards the LGBTQ+ community. Educating ourselves on gay liberation and advocating for gender equality are just some of the important things we can do to for the greater recognition of LGBTQ+ rights.⁠⁠” @villanuevapau
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Pau Villanueva (he/him) is a National Geographic Explorer working on a documentary that explores the intersectionality of queer and cultural identities in indigenous communities in the Philippines that have suffered from displacement, loss of ancestral land, and conflict. Pau is also a 2021 Women Photograph Mentorship Class mentee, an alumni from the 15th Angkor Photo Festival, and is a member of Diversify Photo and Authority Collective.⁠⁠

For more on Paul Villanueva, visit his website: https://www.pauvillanueva.com/

Bradley Secker

Currently based in Istanbul, Bradley Secker (@bsecker) is a freelance photojournalist focusing on the consequences of social, political, and military actions worldwide, with a key focus on how identity shapes lives. Bradley’s approach to photojournalism is often to tackle large issues with new visual methods, such as his FEVER series about the COVID-19 pandemic, and Syrian Nakba series, on the Syrian refugee crisis.⁠⁠
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His long-term personal work has focused on the intersection of migration and sexuality and gender identity, such as the on-going Kütmaan series about LGBT asylum seekers from the Middle East, and his latest work Gayropa. Other work documents the plight of irregular migrants as they enter the European Union, the Syrian conflict and cultural stories in and around Turkey, the Middle East, and Balkans.⁠⁠
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Alongside documentary photography and photojournalism, Bradley has also worked extensively with the Indian film industry, working as a set photographer and videographer for numerous successful Bollywood productions around the world.⁠⁠

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His work has been published widely in international newspapers, magazines, and online.⁠⁠
Occasionally, he writes features and articles or produces short multimedia documentaries on specific topics.⁠⁠

For more on Bradley Secker, visit his website: https://www.bradleysecker.com/