A tender and wild love story of two real courageous and vulnerable human beings. It moves from the extreme to the ordinary, from sweet to brutal, and it keeps moving me.

MICHAEL ACKERMAN

A far away intimate universe. A kind of magic.

LORENZO CASTORE

A story full of vitamins and warm energy.

ANDERS PETERSEN

Love story of the 21st century. Two social outcasts in far, far Indonesia find a way to love each other regardless of their backgrounds: Tira Yohanes Soepomo, a 48 years old transsexual who identified as female, and Dayang, a throw away person, unemployed with no family.

“The two met while living on the streets of the Muslim city of Jogiakarta in Central Java. They shared a life together in a basic six square meter squat that became the centre of their universe. Tira contracted HIV, the deadly virus that hides invisible in the blood, like her ineffable desires and emotions. Dayang loved Tira regardless of the virus; together they shared a lust for life and the courage to be themselves. The couple allowed Luca Desienna into their lives and trusted him to make this respectful and intimate portrait of their relationship. Luca’s photographs honestly penetrate into the moments of their wild, and sometimes raw love making. It’s a passionate portrait of joy and pain, suffering, and ultimately of Tira’s death.”
(taken from Peggy Sue Amison’s essay to the book)

Sometimes I look at myself and feel beautiful, but sometimes I ask God why He made me this way.

TIRA

See what power of love can do!

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AWARDS

• GOLD WINNER - International Photography Awards 2020 - Book/People
• IPA 2020, Jury Top 5 Selection by Amanda Renshaw
• Honorable Mention - Moscow International Foto Awards 2020 –  Book/People

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IN THE PRESS

British Journal of Photography (in English)
Elephant (in English)
Le blog de Fabien Ribery (in French)
5ruedu.fr (in French)

Photographs: Luca Desienna 
Essay: Peggy Sue Amison | East Wing 
Book design: Aneta Kowalczyk

Cover: soft, paper + dust-jacket
Format: 137x200 mm
Number of pages: 108
Number of photographs: 69
Language version: English 

Print run: 300 copies
Printing: eM Marcin Dąbrowski, Łódź, Poland
Binding: Argraf, Warsaw, Poland

Publication date: July 2019
Publisher: BLOW UP PRESS 
ISBN: 978-83-952840-2-1

All images included are book visualisations.