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you look beyond and make what is needed happen. and a smile comes to your face like when you read this quote.
this is day 332 of 365 days of pictures. november 28, 2011.
...what would be a good photo is spoilt. I should have taken another shot, the camera would then have focused. It got confused with pedestrians walking in front.
...you need to step outside, get some air, and remind yourself of who you are and who you want to be.
In order to be, you must do. The greatest things start from that one adventure. That one idea. One step. The places you see, the things you make, and the people you meet will fuel you forever. So, choose to see beauty where others see none. Do more, be more. Feel lost, and explore.
Standing, from left to right: Kurt Krickler* (HOSI Wien, Austria), Suzana Tratnik (Lesbian Group LL, Yugoslavia), Jan Lány (Lambda Prague, Czechoslovakia).
Seated, Andrzej Selerowicz*(HOSI Wien, Austria) and Richard Průša (Lambda Prague, Czechoslovakia).
Andrzej Selerowicz had joined HOSI Wien in 1982 and then started working with the Eastern Europe Information Pool. In May 2023 he explained, in an email to Nigel Warner, how this led him to start the EEIP conferences. Although Polish by nationality, he was living in Vienna in a relationship with another leading figure in HOSI Wien and ILGA, John Clark - and they are still together today.
“I was then a sales representative of a chemical company for Eastern Europe and in this position I had to travel to that region very often. I spent at least 2 weeks per month mostly in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland.
I had plenty of time there, so over time I met several gays. As hotels were not always available I looked for private accommodation and some people offered it to me. There were a lot of opportunities to observe and discuss the gay life. What I saw was not always funny. People treated their homosexuality as a sin or something to be ashamed of. On the other hand there was quite a vivid gay life despite committing possible crime offences and possible punishment by law (different in different countries).
I criticized this situation and the forms of sexual life of my friends, trying to convince them to make a change. The first step, in my opinion, should be to meet other gays (I had quite limited contacts to lesbians), but not treat them only as sexual objects for one night stand. In other words, to socialise and see others as human beings having homosexual orientation. And to avoid dangerous situations and fight against any form of oppression.
At the beginning I had a feeling that nobody understood me. But my contacts showed a kind of interest, so I tried to spread this ideology. In the fall of 1983, I started editing a newsletter in Polish, which I copied at my company. While in Budapest I sent out some 50 copies to addresses I had meanwhile collected (postal costs were then very low). (Originals are at the Queer archive at Lambda Warsaw now and can even be seen online).
In parallel I met guys in Prague (Jan Lány), Bratislava (Marián Vojtek) and first of all Peter Ambrus in Budapest. They showed more interest in the work of ILGA and were able to support it. I wanted to bring them to conferences because I thought this would convince them more. Of course, I financed everything with my own money. As Poland had the most liberal laws concerning travelling abroad, I brought one guy to the [ILGA 1986] conference in Copenhagen. He was recommended to me as a good representative… He did not speak English (or any other language except Polish), did not show up to any workshops (to meals only) and at the farewell dinner, when I asked him, what he planned to do back in Poznan, he became very rude (although I had paid everything for him) and forbade any further contacts. I became quite furious and decided to change my strategy.
This was how the Regional EEIP conferences started. People within Communist countries were able to travel quite freely and at low costs, even the GDR people. A meeting of “activists” from that region in one of the Eastern cities was logical. Peter Ambrus decided to host the people in Budapest in 1987. The conference was quite a big success. Many people from the West were also interested and willing to give some financial support for the costs of the Eastern delegates (or better to say “volunteers”).
The success was so big that the continuation was declared there and Slawek Starosa from Warsaw offered Warsaw as the next site. Unfortunately, this meeting was a disaster. First, Slawek disappeared and the leader of the Warsaw Homosexual Movement (unofficial group), Waldek Zboralski, had no idea what to do. He was also afraid of taking photos, writing a report and making a participation list. A lot of mistakes, but sometimes it is necessary to learn from them. Budapest offered again the hosting of the 1989 EEIP conference again. And again a big success.
For the next conferences I offered to have a specific topic to discuss like how to produce gay/lesbian magazines, spread information about g/l literature, join official institutions in fight with AIDS, etc. … And first of all exchanging ideas between the Western and Eastern delegates…
I developed ambitious plans and expected progress. A few people did not like it. In the end during the [1993] Vienna conference I felt that it was no more fun for me but rather a battle. I did not want to fight with criticism that Vienna, the ex-EEIP, was still dominating with a form of Western “colonialism” or “imperialism”, and so I said “bye”.
I never attended any other EEIP conference - of which only the next in Lithuania made an impact anyway; thereafter it became quite clear that the concept of these conferences turned out to be obsolete. However, the EEIP project seems to be one of the most successful projects of ILGA in that period of time. Several books (also in English) about this topic were published, not to mention countless articles in LGBT press.”
Message from Andrzej Selerowicz to Nigel Warner dated 12/5/2023
Photo credit: John Clark
1987 Budapest EE 2 Krickler selerowicz tratnik lany prusa jc
....a blurry view is a more relaxed way to view the world.
One of those times when I didn't focus right and clicked too soon.
The skinny heptagram at the center is sometimes called the star of Venus, and the other heptagram, the thick bodies one at the outside— that's the star of Netzach. I've painted the background in the emerald color of the DG Queen scale of color. The smaller triangles on the outer will eventually be colored with the planetary colors of the seven classical planets, while the whole of the larger heptagram will be amber — sort of a bright orange — as the projective force of Netzach. While the smaller heptagram will be in the bright yellow-green of the Prince scale. Not sure how ill introduce the speckled black-white-green of the princess scale, though. Worth thinking on.
2025 Old Soul Society at The Music Box of Rockford
8 January 2025
Rockford IL
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There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes.
Abraham Lincoln
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