Ask Me Anything

While sipping her coffee, Prince Emrah looked at me and said, ‘it is hard for me to build trust with a photographer. But let’s give it a try.’ That was our first meeting.

Prince Emrah, a gender-nonconforming (pronouns she and he) refugee of Turkmenistan, is the definition of ‘larger than life.’ After arriving in Berlin, he found her healing in belly dance. Since she made her first costume from a piece of curtain a few years ago, she has performed at birthday parties, weddings and the city’s most prominent queer clubs. Emrah is also the founder / mother of the House of Royals, a performance collective providing LGBTQIA+ refugee and asylum-seeking artists opportunities. He currently studies in a beauty and wellness school and aspires to establish her own business.

After that first coffee date, Prince Emrah not only took me to countless back stages but also became my close friend. Since I supported the House of Royals by providing photos to increase their presence, they offered me a space to experiment and introduced me to their broader circle of friends.

Because Emrah has witnessed my process from the earliest moment on, I thought it would be great to chat with him about the book. So here she is, asking me about anything she is interested in learning more about.

Prince Emrah: I am so excited to have a chat with you about your book! Let’s jump right into it. How did you end up connecting with a circle of LGBTQIA+ refugee and asylum seekers?

Samet Durgun: On International Workers’ Day, you had a gig at an open-air festival in Kreuzberg. A few hours before the show, you introduced me to your friends with whom you used to share a dorm. I was mesmerised by each individual and the stories that they shared with me that day. The relationships grew over time, friends were introduced to other friends.

PE Did you have a plan to make this book back then already?

SD I did not have any plans to make this book or even ‘a book’, but I had an idea that could be translated into images. I wanted to express my urge to be understood by connecting with people I felt close to. I have a deep respect for people whose identities are so intricate and layered that the struggle, power of resistance and resilience become invisible to others.

As you know, my forebears are refugees from the Caucasus. I grew up as an ethnic minority, an agnostic and a bullied queer kid raised by a single mother in Turkey. As much as I am aware of the unique challenges that your community faces and our stories aren’t identical, I felt the solidarity with people as a queer person at the intersection of multiple identities with lived experiences.

PE I see that there are quite a lot of pictures of artists from the community as well. Why is that?

SD Kids in my generation grew up in Turkey with legendary transgender and gender-nonconforming artists (whom I impersonated when I was a kid), yet I wasn’t aware of any gender-nonconforming and trans* and queer individuals around me. Those stars on TV seemed to be from another planet. LGBP (lesbian and gay, and especially bisexual and pansexual) people I knew either identified themselves as straight, kept their identities to themselves, or didn’t feel the need to explain themselves to anyone. Both statistically and anecdotally, the lack of LGBTQIA+ individuals in my life didn’t make sense to me.

A few years later, I started meeting artists in the Berlin performance art scene, including you, who expressed, explained and explored gender. I felt empowered to be around the artists who claimed spaces, had a desire to live better, had an incredible sense of community and believed in the fluidity of gender. The conversations I had with all of you was liberating. They were a form of therapy for me.

PE Have you ever thought, ‘oh, I wish I had a talent for dance’?

SD I admire your talent in dancing and stage presence, but no, I am happy doing my little dance while photographing.

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PE When I talk about my story, I say, ‘if you haven’t experienced it, you wouldn’t understand it. Even if you did, you could not feel it.’ The same goes for you in this case. You spent time with our collective, we can tell you what it is like, but it is never the same until you live it yourself. What I like about you, though – there were times we put you in costume and makeup. I want to see those self-portraits in the book; I think they deserve a spot.

SD Duly noted.

PE How did you feel in those moments?

SD I felt absolutely comfortable with your costume, not only because I was with all of you in such a safe space, but because it made my legs look better. With the makeup, it was slightly different. There was a workshop in the dorm, and Julie (a friend who is a Malaysian gender-nonconforming dancer) saw how poor my makeup was (it was my first time …) and decided to help me out. She went all-in: red lips, extra high eyebrows and contour on my beard. Some people in the dorm didn’t recognise me afterward. I got mean looks and catcalls on my way home. Looking in the mirror, I felt fabulous.

PE I want to ask you when you know that you ‘got the shot.’ Take the image of my blue dress, for instance. You visited me twice for that, around the same time of day with the same light on it.

SD Okay, now we are talking about my obsessions [laughs]. For some images, I know that I can’t bring back the moment. Think of the one picture where Dalaa dances through the window. Then there are ones, like your blue dress, where I might have a chance to come back. Not surprisingly, though, I usually end up going back to the first one.

PE I relate to the charm of the first time. Let’s also talk about city images. Why did you prefer to include those? I mean, we are not even ‘Berliners.’

SD Berlin – or any city – plays a crucial role in our lives, whether we are born in it or not. Think about daily activities, friendships, politics, opportunities. So, I was interested in how people feel about the city.

Many people think that Berlin is the ideal destination for its accepting history for queers. They are thankful for the support system established for the community, including education, healthcare and housing. At the same time, Berlin is far from perfect. For those who have to live with their traumas’ impacts, accessing proper mental health care isn’t easy. To feel a sense of belonging, learning German is essential yet challenging, and finding a job to make just a little bit more money than the minimum government support is more challenging. On top of that, some asylum seekers wait for ‘years’ to get their refugee status, living with the fear of being deported anytime, while others get it in just a few weeks. During this process, individuals’ authenticity about their gender identity and lived experiences are questioned by authorities who don’t have a marginalised background or similar lived experiences.

What’s more, hate crimes against BIPOC queers and people with migration and refugee backgrounds are statistically on the rise, and there are people around me who experience the violence first-hand. In the middle of gentrification, finding a long-term rental contract seems nearly impossible, even if the government guarantees to pay for the rent. For example, Keil Li Divon (who appears in the book) has moved 15 times since she arrived in Germany.

The list can go on. So, how to reflect these learnings in the story? After each interaction with people, my perception of the city evolved. The city started to have a character and visual language. I wanted to capture Berlin from that angle.

PE Is there a deliberate sequencing or narrative in this book? I must admit, when I began looking at the pictures, I thought it would reveal a particular story. But that wasn’t the case.

SD Indeed, the book doesn’t follow a straightforward filmic storyline. Instead, it reflects my relationships and my impression of the stories people shared with me.

PE That makes sense. You have been photographing us for quite some time now. However, I mostly see sunny pictures. This isn’t the Berlin I know.

SD Yes, it is absolutely the opposite! On sunny days, I tend to go out, meet people and shoot more. I can see that people are in a better mood, more open.

PE I’ll second that sun happiness! How do you approach colours? What do they mean to you?

SD I use colours abundantly and I care how they all work together within an image and among groups of images. As far as the colour photography medium is concerned, I appreciate the complexity of colour photography, which demands me to get the lighting and colours in harmony.

PE Now that the book is coming out, will you continue photographing us, or is this book ‘it’?

SD There will be for sure more times and images together.

PE That makes me happy.

About Prince Emrah

Prince Emrah is a Berlin-based belly dancer, DJ, drag performer, dance trainer and make-up artist of Kurdish and Azerbaijani descent. Raised in Turkmenistan, Emrah lived in Istanbul before arriving in Germany in 2015. In 2018, she founded the QueerBerg Collective to support queer refugees and transgender artists. Her initiatives also include the Black & Brown Queer Cabaret, Whoriental Festival and House of Namus. Through performances, festivals and community events, Emrah creates spaces for queer refugees and artists of colour to perform, connect and find support. Full biography, HKW · Interview, Deutschland.de