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Photography has long been an important artistic medium for lesbian
women, but the record of
lesbian
photography before Stonewall has been obscured by time,
disinterest, and overt hostility. However, the last thirty years of
scholarship have produced enough material to create a dialogue about
photographs made by lesbian-identified or lesbian-identifiable women.
An
untitled photograph
by Alice Austen (circa 1893)
Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) may
be best known for her photographs of New York City's changing
cityscapes, but she also made memorable images of lesbians, bisexuals,
and gay men in Paris and New York.
Alice Austen (1866-1952) was one
of the first American women to become a photographer. The style she
developed anticipated the genre of documentary photography.
Ruth Bernhard
(b. 1905) is one of the preeminent twentieth-century photographers of the nude female. In her nineties, she publicly revealed
relationships she has had with both women and men.
Claude Cahun
(1894-1954), a photographer, photo collagist, writer, and translator, is known today
primarily for creating images, including self-portraits, that play with
concepts of gender.
Clara Estelle Sipprell
(1885-1975) was a leading photographer of her day. She developed a
Pictorialist approach and sought to create photographs that were as
artful as paintings.
Photo Credits:
Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
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