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This intimate book explores Broy Lim´s realization of his homosexuality in his hometown of Singapore, where it still remains illegal. Combining personal texts and photos, and now they know narrates Lim´s sexual identity and his nine-year relationship with his partner, while also representing the broader struggle of many youths who navigate their sense of self in conservative heteronormative societies.

Lim begins the book with handwritten texts that establish his confessional tone: "My truth has always been an untouchable, unspeakable illusion / I want to be unlimited too ... I want to ascend to your paradise, to escape this inferno." Such thoughts reoccur and give autobiographic nuance to his suggestive, hushed photos which include self-portraits, still lifes and landscapes. This lyrical interplay between text and image captures a sense of the often unspoken norms which Lim has overcome and his "open secret" that for many years even his family could only speculate on.

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Lim, Broy
Broy Lim was born in Singapore in 1990, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and Digital Imaging from Nanyang Technological University. His works, primarily dealing with his personal experiences living in the island state, have been exhibited at photography festivals both in his hometown and internationally, such as the Pingyao International Photography Festival 2014 and 2015, the Auckland Festival of Photography 2016, and the Indian Photography Festival 2016 in Hyderabad.

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