I Went on a Holiday to the Country You Fled From

A close friendship between photographer Iris Haverkamp Begemann and Mexican writer/activist Alejandra Ortiz led to a remarkable artistic collaboration. Their conversations revealed both parallels in their daily lives in Amsterdam and sharp contrasts in their life experiences. When Iris booked a vacation to Mexico, she felt uneasy about the security of traveling to the place Alejandra had to flee. This tension formed the basis for a quest: Iris traveled to Alejandra's birthplace in Mexico to deeply document the places she had to leave behind. This resulted in a series of images that not only address memory, loss, and transgender acceptance, but also the inequality of freedom and safety between a cisgender white Dutch woman and a Mexican transgender woman of color.

Using instructions and a map drawn from memory, Iris traces Alejandra's childhood in Salitral de Carrera, Mexico. In the remote town, Iris is welcomed into a community where Alejandra felt both loved and cared for, yet also extremely unsafe, marginalized, and rejected by her own family. The cinematic, earthy photographs stand in stark contrast to Alejandra's handwritten notes, which capture the harsh realities of her childhood.

This photo series weaves together experiences of belonging and rejection into an intimate portrait of identity and the complex ways in which personal freedom is shaped. Beyond these personal stories, the series is also an open invitation to reflect on the contradictions of our privileges—our ability to make choices about our lives and our bodies—and our responsibility for perpetuating systemic inequalities that benefit some and are life-threateningly harmful to others.

This series was previously shown at Melkweg Expo. I Went on a Holiday to the Country You Fled From is part of Gooise Pride Month.