TITLE: Taboo

In most African Countries homosexuality is considered a crime.
The penalties are very severe: from detention to the death penalty.
In Senegal art. 319 of the Penal Code condemns those who commits acts against nature to a prison
sentence from 6 months to 5 years.
Those captured by the police know that the lawyers defend them only on one condion: to renounce,
in front of the court judge, their sexual orientation, forever.
But the real condemnation is not what is pronounced by the court.
When a homosexual is discovered there is a social judgment, freely governed by the people.
The verdict, for a homosexual is one, definive, death.
Homophobia is everywhere and an estimated 90% of the population is homophobic.
Family, friendship, study, work; everything ends when homosexuality is discovered.
People who once played a role in society are suddenly abandoned, let to die in misery.
El Hadji is homosexual lives locked inside a room. He only goes out at night. His body is covered with wounds inflicted by unknown people. Every time he leaves his room, he risks his life. Knives, awls, broken bottles. These are the tools that have marked him forever.

AUTHOR: Francesca Landini (Italy)

Graduated in photojournalism in 2014 and in documentary photography in 2018 in Rome. I also graduated at University and I work as an economist in Rome for European education funds. I chose my career as a freelancer to devote half of my time to photography. I approached photography with passion when I was 13 years old, when a reflex camera arrived in my house. Photography plunges my gaze into the human soul, to discover life experiences that enrich my vision of the world. Light, expression and emotion, enters the intimate and explores it, leaving questions and a desire to learn more.
After graduating from photojournalism, I carried out projects such as freelance, (topics: a murder case, a story of shepherds affected by the 2016 earthquake, homosexuality in Senegal, published in Italy, the banks of the Tiber, the Talibè children, a census of a Senegalese village).
I also worked on commission together with the photographer Francesco Zizzola, to realize the 8x1000 advertising campaign at the Catholic Church and I created an exhibition at the Goethe Institute in Rome on the theme of Islamic women in the great Mosque in Rome.