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“My queer family are the first people I ever photographed,” the Berlin-based artist Gøneja tells me. “And they’re the ones I continue to portray to this day.” He’s embarked on countless adventures with this chosen family, whether they’re dancing the night away at Berghain, the iconic (and famously hard-to-get-into) club in the heart of the city, or spending the day exploring a quiet village in the Polish countryside. Their faces appear time and again, in darkened interiors and sun-drenched landscapes, as you make your way through his newest book, Rituals.

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“The people you see through the pages of the book are somehow all seekers and believers,” Gøneja says. “It is this spiritual quest, or perhaps a search for something bigger, that somehow runs as a thread throughout this work and weaves all the subjects together.” In their pictures, you’ll find echoes of Norse mythology, Sufism, and other centuries-old spiritual systems, set against the backdrop of the modern world. The portraits themselves are interspersed with evocative, empty landscapes captured throughout Europe, including a Neolithic monument in Scotland and a land art installation in Sicily.

Rituals is one photographer’s ode to the people he knows, the places he’s visited, and the gleaming, mystical moments that too often go unnoticed in the hustle and bustle of contemporary urban life. One of the photographs in the book, a portrait of Lea Rose, was recently recognized as a runner-up in the All Out Photo Awards, an international celebration of resistance, support, and healing in the LGBTQ+ community. We asked Gøneja more about the project. You can grab your copy of Rituals here.

The Essential Gear of Gøneja

Zenza Bronica ERTSi 645

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Bronica Zenzanon-PE 75mm f/2.8

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM

Gøneja tells us:

“I never owned more than two cameras. For this series, they were: the Zenza Bronica ERTSi 645, an analog and medium-format one, and a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, digital and 35mm. Using two different cameras’ techniques and formats allowed me to bring more variety to the subjects I could choose, although I had to ensure enough consistency throughout.

“Medium-format cameras have the great advantage of capturing details and textures more richly than a 35mm. I particularly enjoyed this higher resolution and very descriptive image when I started printing some of the photographs for the exhibition. In the print portraying Giacomo White Noise, for instance, you can see the skin texture and the tattoo pattern so vividly, it feels almost like real-life.

“Digital cameras, on the other hand, have their own sets of qualities. One that was useful to me is that they are better at capturing and freezing movement. When I photographed the dancer Rima Baransi, for instance, her body was in motion as she was performing for the camera, so digital was no doubt the best choice.

“We also wanted to use a location that somehow resembled Palestine, in line with Rima’s origins and her political militancy. We shot in a construction site with big long walls holding together huge dunes of sand, which are used in the production of concrete for a nearby tunnel. Having a lighter, hand-held camera meant, in this case, that I had better mobility and could try out different perspectives much quicker.

“In terms of lenses, I primarily used the Bronica Zenzanon-PE 75mm f/2.8 and Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM, which offer an almost equal perspective across the different formats. I love this type of lens’ length because it’s the closest you can get to the perspective of the human eye. It makes it easier for me to compose the photograph looking straight at the subject in front of my eyes, without relying too much on the waist-level or viewfinder.”

Phoblographer: One of your portraits was recently named a runner-up in the All Out Photo Awards. In what way has the LBGTQ+ community helped s...