Kairo Urovi is a London-based trans-masc photographer who has created a series of photographs titled Stray Dog to honour his pre-transition life in Albania. Due to the conservative nature of Albanian society, Urovi is still recognized as a girl in the country, making every journey home a complicated one. In this series of photographs, he has decided to navigate his tumultuous feelings by recording himself in personal Albanian spaces and landscapes.
These are spaces and places where he had grown up and made memories; immortalizing himself in them helps to assert his current self’s presence and at the same time, honour the memories of his pre-transition self— in a society that pushes him to hate both. By showcasing Stray Dog, Urovi is also validating the presence and lives of other trans people in Albania and elsewhere in the world. He is also helping them to heal and honour their pre-transition memories. This is why photographs in the Stray Dog series by Kairo Urovi are relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Gender Equality.
A survey done by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) found that a majority of the LGBTQ+ population in Albania tend to hide their identity in public, with 74 percent avoiding holding their same-sex partner’s hand in public.
“The fear that the people around me will find out, starting from the moment I understood my orientation, has closed me in, so that now, even though I am an adult, I have not had a romantic and sexual life, a free social life,” said a 24-year-old gay man participating in the survey.
This reality is one that Urovi is trying to highlight with Stray Dogs. Here, in being publicly trans, he states that despite social stigma, queer people still exist in Albania.
Urovi’s images are all black and white to enhance their nostalgic quality. They ponder the different realities of queer people in Albania, from being half-disguised by their surroundings to leaning comfortably in their bedrooms. They calmly state that diverse genders and sexualities have been here, are here, and should not be considered taboo.
Kairo Urovi’s Stray Dog series is a deeply personal exploration of identity, memory, and resilience. Through his evocative black-and-white photographs, Urovi bravely navigates the complex emotions surrounding his pre-transition life in Albania. In this country, conservative norms still bind him to a past self. By immortalizing his presence in the spaces and landscapes of his youth, Urovi honours his journey and affirms the existence and experiences of other trans people who may feel similarly trapped by societal expectations. Stray Dog is more than a visual narrative; it is a powerful statement of visibility and validation for the LGBTQ+ community, particularly in regions where being oneself is still radical. His photographs offer a poignant reminder that diverse genders and sexualities are part of the fabric of every society, deserving of recognition, respect and acceptance.
Find out more about Stray Dog and other pieces by Kairo Urovi on his website www.kairourovi.com or his Instagram @kairo.kay.