Arjun Kamath’s Coming Out represents the difficulties many young Indians face when they come out as LGBT

A photographer has shared a series of photos illustrating the persecution many same-sex couples still face in the world.
In a series of photos shared on Facebook, Arjun Kamath’s Coming Out represents the difficulties many young Indians face when they come out as LGBT.
“I have some gay friends who feel suffocated at having to hide and I wanted to address that; this is why I literalised the metaphorical closet,” Kamath told The Quint.
The pictures powerfully depict the story of two women who hesitatingly come out of the closet in a forest.

 
In addition to the images, Kamath shared his narrative of the images on his Facebook page.
In the narrative, the lovers Maitreyi and Alpana leave the closet before playing hide and seek in a forest.

Soon after, Maitreyi steps on a thorn and falls down in pain.
The couple are then blessed by Parivala, who is said to have also found freedom in the woods just days before.

The next day, the couple are pictured having fun by a river, however their happiness is disturbed by the Rakshasas, a type of evil in Hindi mythology, who chain the lovers up and force them back into the closet.
The final photos show the Rakshasas lighting the closet on fire with the two women trapped inside.
“Their biggest sin,” Kamath writes, “was that they loved each other, and not a man.”

“I was sick of some of my friends not being able to talk to their family and friends about their orientation. The ‘log kya kahenge‘ fear made them step right back into that closet the second they so much as opened the door for a breath of fresh air. And that is not acceptable. To see them go through life in oblique disappointment is not acceptable,” Kamath told India Today.
The setting of the photos was intentional, with Kamath tellingIndia Today: “The forest that the closet is kept in reflects the savage retaliation they receive from the society. And I wanted it to be graphic, because no other way could I portray the agony that my friends, and even your friends, go through.”
To see the full series of pictures, along with Kamath’s narrative,click here.