Gay Photography and Lesbian & Gay Photographers

I’m a very, very amateur photographer. I have a standard 5 megapixel digital camera that I use frequently and a decent but basic Canon 35mm camera that I sometimes still use. I take pictures at any occasion. My Facebook images page (which you can reach from the link above), is packed with my efforts. Granted, most of those shots are of family but I never skip an opportunity to take a camera anywhere there might be a good shot waiting.

I’m writing this on my PC rather than my laptop. Above my desk hangs a fabulous framed, full color print of a grist mill near my childhood home. In the master bedroom hang 3 large Ansel Adams decorative prints, two of which are scenes I’ve seen and taken photographs of first hand. A fourth framed, real panographic photograph taken from the Canadian side of Niagara Falls circa 1930 also hangs in the master bedroom. I won that in a hard fought battle with two other bidders at a local auction. I paid a decent amount for it and it’s likely worth many times that…though I’d never part with it.

As a specialist in “old paper”, I’ve been fascinated over my eBay sales career with both photographs and with Real photo postcards. I think if I had to pick one form of visual artistry I most enjoy looking at, it would be photography. Now, my specialty and my favorite medium not withstanding, I’m no expert. I just enjoy the art for the sake of the art.

Whenever I go to a bookstore, I look at all sorts of books but certain books catch my eye. Photography books and coffee table books full of good photography are two that I gravitate toward. I enjoy the work of Ansel Adams, obviously and have perused many books of his work. Those aren’t the books I want to cover today.

I recently got the opportunity to enjoy the 2001nDavid Deitcher book, Dear Friends: American Photographs of Men Together, 1840-1918. The publisher’s description”

“A persuasive and startling look at friendship between men in the 19th century.” —Edmund White “Certainly one of the most interesting and provocative studies of American photography to have appeared in years.” —Linda Nochlin “Invaluable and deeply affecting. . . . A sophisticated analysis of a previously little-understood aspect of the history of male-male relationships.”—Martin Duberman

This groundbreaking book presents rarely seen photographs that provide an entirely fresh perspective on male friendship in the 19th century. The poignant images in more than 100 early photographs, drawn from public and private collections, suggest a surprisingly broad-minded attitude toward physical intimacy between men, challenging the conventional view of the Victorian era as more inhibited than our own. Deitcher’s provocative text—combining history, social observation, pictorial analysis, and personal reflection—explores the nature of that same-sex affection and the meaning such pictures can hold for us today.

Thoroughly intrigued by that work, I went in search of books by my very favorite female photographer, who just happens to be a lesbian; the famous, celebrated, Annie Leibovitz. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Annie’s 2000 collection, Women, here. Now, these aren’t necessarily a “women loving women” collection of photographs but, rather, they’re broad spectrum of women as captured through her lens. The publisher’s description:

The photographs by Annie Leibovitz in Women, taken especially for the book, encompass a broad spectrum of subjects: a rap artist, an astronaut, two Supreme Court justices, farmers, coal miners, movie stars, showgirls, rodeo riders, socialites, reporters, dancers, a maid, a general, a surgeon, the First Lady of the United States, the secretary of state, a senator, rock stars, prostitutes, teachers, singers, athletes, poets, writers, painters, musicians, theater directors, political activists, performance artists, and businesswomen. “Each of these pictures must stand on its own,” Susan Sontag writes in the essay that accompanies the portraits. “But the ensemble says, So this what women are now — as different, as varied, as heroic, as forlorn, as conventional, as unconventional as this.”

The aforementioned Susan Sontag, who passed away in 2004, was Leibovitz’s partner for more than a decade prior to her death, though they never actually lived together.

Annie Leibovitz’s life during the period from 1990 to 2005, including her relationship with Sontag, was chronicled in words and pictures in the 2006 book A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005.

In 2009, Leibovitz experienced severe financial hardships brought on by years of mismanaged finances, real estate issues, and strain from the medical needs of her former lover during her final days in addition to other strains. She borrowed against all of her property and her vast artistic holdings in an attempt to make herself financially whole again. Though she continues to strain financially, she continues to do what she does best and that’s to take photographs that see into the very soul.

Earlier this month, Leibovitz had her latest photography book, Pilgrimage, published. This is her documentation of a personal journey she undertook across the country and to a few places around the globe. I was drawn to the book by the very cover which is her photograph of the brink of the Horseshoe (Canadian) Falls from the Canada side of Niagara Falls. I’ve taken some very similar photograph myself at from close to the same spot and angle (scanned and shown below her book).

Brink of the Horseshoe Falls - Niagara Falls, Canada

Brink of the Horseshoe Falls - Niagara Falls, Canada