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Black and white conceptual fine art photograph 'SANCTIONED' by Arjan Spannenburg, featuring a family in a protective stance while several hands reach in from the edges to pull them apart, highlighting themes of resilience and social pressure.
Arjan Spannenburg

SANCTIONED

"A defiant monument to rainbow families, challenging the viewer to choose between protection and destruction in an increasingly polarized world."

The Narrative

The Unbreakable Bond in a Fragmenting World

At a time when the legitimacy of rainbow families is under global scrutiny, SANCTIONED stands as a monumental act of resistance and devotion. Created as a visceral response to the shifting political climate in Italy, where the rights of LGBTQ+ parents were being systematically curtailed, the emotion it evokes is universal: the primal human instinct to shield one’s family from a judgmental world.

The power of this piece lies in its raw, high-contrast monochrome execution. Stripped of the distraction of color, the viewer is forced to confront the essence of the struggle: the texture of the encroaching hands and the unflinching gaze of the fathers. The composition is deliberately claustrophobic yet resilient; the hands reaching from the periphery symbolize the external pressures of legislation and social prejudice attempting to dismantle the family unit. In the center, the fathers and their children remain an impenetrable core of light against a threatening darkness.

The Viewer as Judge and Jury

During the 2023 Paratissima exhibition in Turin, this symbolism transitioned from the visual to the physical. Printed on a vulnerable fabric rather than behind glass, SANCTIONED became an interactive moral trial. Visitors were faced with a haunting choice: those opposed to LGBTQ+ rights were invited to cut the fabric with scissors; those in support could reinforce it with tape. The third option, silence and passivity, became the most profound, as spectators returned later to see the damage their inaction allowed. SANCTIONED is more than a photograph; it is a historical document of the zeitgeist and a reminder that in the face of injustice, neutrality is a choice.

Visual Analysis

A high-contrast black and white conceptual photograph featuring a family at its center. Two men (fathers) are closely embracing two young children. Their expressions are serious and resilient, looking directly into the lens. Multiple hands enter the frame from all sides, some grasping at the subjects, creating a sense of tension and external pressure. The lighting is dramatic, highlighting the faces and the texture of the skin against a deep black background. The overall aesthetic is cinematic and evocative of classical chiaroscuro techniques.

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A high-contrast monochrome photograph by Arjan Spannenburg titled "EMERGE." The composition focuses on two figures in a desolate sandy landscape. A man with his bare back to the camera finds sanctuary in the dark, layered robes of a second figure, whose head is wrapped in a traditional covering. The wind catches the fabric against a minimalist horizon.A monochrome fine art photograph by Arjan Spannenburg titled ROOTED, featuring a bare-shouldered man and a figure in dark Middle Eastern robes embracing in a vast sand dune next to a weathered Scots pine with exposed roots.A close embrace between a bare-chested man and a figure in dark traditional robes on a bright sandy beach.A winged man covers his eyes with his hands against a dark forest background, evoking a sense of internal reflection.A young man with wings and a bow stands among dark leaves, embodying a vulnerable contemporary Cupid.AUSTERE explores the delicate tension between the individual and the invisible frameworks of Western ethics, capturing the haunting beauty of inherited cultural burdens through a minimalist lens.

Year

2023

Genres

LGBT+QueerArtivism

Authority & Context

Paratissima ↗HRW ↗ICP ↗