The latest exhibit at the Getty Center has been in the works for years.
Six, to be exact.
Even if the timing was not planned, the exhibit debuted at the Getty Center in June — known as Pride Month — as LGBTQ+ rights are under fire nationwide.
“Queer Lens: A History of Photography,” on view now through September 28, gives new dimension to how expressions of sexuality and gender have evolved over the last two centuries, and how they’ve shifted public perceptions of the community.
The exhibit, home to nearly 300 photos, took so long to compose because many photographs of LGBTQ+ people throughout history were difficult and time-consuming to track down, curator Paul Martineau says.
“We're very lucky to have found this evidence because many of these kinds of things were destroyed by people,” Martineau tells KCRW during a recent tour of the 2,000 square foot gallery. “Sometimes it was part of a government program to destroy things. Other times, it's the people's own families, or even themselves, because they didn't want to leave this evidence behind.”
The exhibit is split into eight different eras and arranged both chronologically and thematically.
The oldest piece in the exhibit isn’t actually a photograph. Rather, it’s what Martineau calls pre-photographic art from around 1810 — before the invention of photography. The romantic bond between two women from 19th-century Vermont is depicted through a garland that is braided with their hair.
“Sometimes people would say, ‘Oh, these were just two friends.’ And many times, same-sex friends would memorialize their platonic love for one another by doing this kind of an artwork,” Martineau says. “But we know from the documentary evidence that these women were in a lesbian relationship that was physical.”
Curator Paul Martineau points to a pre-photographic piece called “Double Silhouette of Sylvia Drake and Charity Bryant of Weybridge, Vermont,” where the artists used their hair to memorialize their love for each other. Photo by Tohar Zamir.
Many well-known artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, and Diane Arbus are featured in the exhibit, as well as around a dozen unknown photographers. Similarly, the subjects of some of the photos are recognizable – like LGBTQ+ rights icon Marsha P. Johnson or reality TV host and drag queen RuPaul – but most feature everyday people, taken by their friends or lovers.
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Some photographs were placed in the show for their rarity, like one from 1927 by James Van Der Zee, who photographed Black men and women in Harlem wearing the opposite gender’s clothing.
“Van Der Zee had an open studio, and he was willing to take pictures of people who were cross-dressing. And part of the proof of his pride in the making of this picture is that he signed it in the negative,” Martineau says.
Others were taken for scientific purposes. That includes a series of photographs by Eadweard Muybridge from the early 20th century that show the first kiss to ever be captured in motion.
Martineau says it would have been considered inappropriate for a nude man and woman to appear in the same image, so they used two women.
“The reason they’re nude is to show the action of their muscles in motion,” he says. “This would not have been released out into the wide public but consulted by people in the medical profession or scientists interested in movement.”
Curator Paul Martineau sits in front of a 1994 chromogenic print, “Diesel Jeans, Victory Day, 1945,” which recreates a scene from when U.S. soldiers arrived home after World War II. Photo by Tohar Zamir.
The walls portray the many faces of LGBTQ+ life over the years. That also includes a number of nude bodies. However, Martineau says he didn’t want the exhibit to place too large of a focus on sexuality.
“One of the things I really wanted to try and balance in this show was the depictions of the community,” he says.” I did not want to put too many erotic pictures within the show and make it all about sex, because that's just one aspect of queer life.”
Also featured in the exhibit is a seemingly innocuous photo strip from the 1950s. In it, two men are sharing a kiss, hidden away from the public’s prying eyes.
“When you drew the curtain, it was private, and if you got out in front of the machine fast enough, no one could see what you had done in the booth,” Martineau says. “Some people were afraid to send their film in to be developed because they thought they might be reported to the authorities or that their negatives might be seized and not returned to them.”
“Two Young Men Kissing in Photo Booth” by Joseph John Bertrund Belanger was taken in the 1950s. Photo booths were one of the few private places LGBTQ+ people could take pictures together without fear of those photos being reported or confiscated. Photo courtesy of ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
While queer joy and love is celebrated throughout, the exhibit also depicts some of the difficult moments in LGBTQ+ history, including the fight for gay rights and the AIDS crisis.
Martineau says he intentionally chose to show only one photo where someone is visually sick with AIDS. It’s a black and white image of activist David Kirby, photographed by Therese Frare.
It sits enclosed in glass in the middle of the exhibit.
“He basically became the face of AIDS,” he says. “So I put it here in this case to give it ultimate importance, to almost make it feel like it's a religious experience. It's in the middle of the floor where it stops you like a stop sign. You cannot go past this picture without noticing it.”
Martineau says he hopes visitors to the exhibit will walk away with a greater understanding of the diversity and contributions of the LGBTQ+ community throughout history.
“Queer Lens: A History of Photography” invites visitors to see two centuries of LGBTQ+ history. Photo by Tohar Zamir.
“We have a special place in the world and it is to expand people's horizons,” he says. “It is to teach people new lessons, and it's a very important and empowering message that people should be proud, and they have a very special role to play in this world.”