Queer Lens
A History of Photography
Paul Martineau and Ryan Linkof’s evocative photographic history Queer Lens chronicles queer representation in the medium.
Arguing that representation is instrumental to visibility, this book says that photography “queered” the separation between voyeur and subject. Addressing techniques and contexts including vernacular versus fine-art photography, the book’s definition of “queer” encompasses anyone who lives outside social norms, from 1732 onward. Although it focuses on queer experiences and identities in the United States, the book also addresses disparities across the world for people of color, lesbians, and the transgender community and encourages digging into those arenas.
The ranging photographs included herein include pictorialist and photo-secessionist pieces; some depict everyday life, and others are staged, high-budget pieces. The lives of people like Robert Mapplethorpe, who sought to represent gay subcultures like sadomasochism and who had a complicated history representing Black men, and Marsha P. Johnson, a Black transwoman activist vital to the Stonewall Uprising, are covered via enticing biographical details. The sheer number of photographs is astounding but not comprehensive, with work left to be done capturing queer people of color, non-Western subjects, and the transgender community. Regardless, the collection is potent and inspiring.
Some forms of representation are covert, the book notes, allowing queer people to escape ostracization, as with the on-the-border erotic images produced by physique magazines and homophile publications. The way a lone woman’s body takes up space in a frame, or the posing of gay men’s bodies as objects to be desired, are reflected upon as forms of self-empowerment for photographers and subjects alike. Regardless, many of the subjects and photographers were criticized and persecuted for their artistry.
Queer Lens is an empowering photography retrospective that reflects American queer communities.
Reviewed by
Ali Ortiz
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
