Photographer

Gay Pioneer

b. January 5, 1930
d. May 26, 2021

“Whatever the Founding Fathers envisioned as the rights and privileges of our citizens, we wanted for ourselves.”

Kay Lahusen, also known as Kay Tobin Lahusen and Kay Tobin, is the first openly lesbian photojournalist in America. She was among the first women to chronicle and participate in the early gay rights movement. Her photographs appeared on the covers of some of the first LGBT publications in the nation, including The Ladder and Gay Newsweekly. 

In 1961 Lahusen joined the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the first lesbian organization in the United States. Shortly thereafter, she met Barbara Gittings, an activist who started the East Coast Chapter of the DOB and who is regarded as the mother of the LGBT civil rights movement. The pair began a lifelong relationship and became one of the most influential, pioneering lesbian couples in America.

Lahusen initially garnered national attention in 1965, when she photographed and also protested in the first of what became a series of seminal public demonstrations for gay and lesbian equality. Spearheaded by Barbara Gittings and Frank Kameny, these first organized pickets were held in Philadelphia each Fourth of July from 1965 to 1969 in front of Independence Hall. Known as Annual Reminders, the demonstrations paved the way for the Stonewall riot in 1969.

In addition to her work as a photojournalist, Lahusen worked at one of the first gay bookshops in the country, the Oscar Wilde Bookstore in New York City, and with Gittings for the gay caucus of the American Library Association. Lahusen cofounded the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) and later the Gay Women’s Alternative in New York City. 

Lahusen collaborated with many Gay Pioneers, including Frank Kameny and Jack Nichols, to publicize LGBT issues and present accurate, positive depictions of gays and lesbians. In 1972 she co-authored “The Gay Crusaders,” the first collection of short biographies of gay activists. 

During her lifetime, Lahusen photographed thousands of events and activists of the gay rights movement. Her collection of writings and photos, along with Gittings’s writings and papers, is archived at the New York Public Library.

Lahusen and Gittings remained together for 46 years. Shortly before Gittings’s death in 2007, the couple moved to the Philadelphia suburb of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Lahusen will be buried alongside Gittings at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The New York Times published her obituary.

Updated May 26, 2021.

Photographer

b. September 6, 1950, Hong Kong

d. March 10, 1990, New York, New York

“My photographs are social studies and social comments on Western society and its relationship with the East.”

Tseng Kwong Chi, also known as Joseph Tseng, was the preeminent photographer of the 1980s New York pop scene. His work engages a wide variety of traditions, from landscape photography to portraiture. His best-known photographs examine perceptions of “foreign-ness,” as he experimented artistically with his Asian-American identity.

Tseng immigrated as a teen with his family to Canada. After studying Fine Arts in Paris, he moved to New York City. Tseng compiled portraits of the period’s most celebrated artists. He produced the largest Keith Haring archive, taking more than 40,000 photographs of the renowned graffiti artist and his drawings and murals.

Tseng’s most famous body of work is his collection of self-portraits, titled “Expeditionary Self-Portrait Series” or alternatively “East Meets West.” In the series, Tseng adopted the identity of a stereotypical Chinese dignitary, donning a Mao suit, mirrored sunglasses and an ID badge that read “SlutforArt.” He situated himself in front of well-known Western monuments and tourist sites, including the World Trade Center, the Eiffel Tower and Mount Rushmore.

Tseng’s photographs exploit the juxtaposition of perceived and self-assigned identities. Reductive stereotypes were particularly relevant for LGBT Americans of his generation.

At age 39, Tseng died of AIDS-related illness. The stunning portfolio he amassed in his brief career secured his legacy as one of the best photographers of his era. His work has been displayed in museums worldwide, including the Guggenheim and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Photographer

b. April 14, 1961

"Let’s push the boundaries a little bit here about what you guys think normal is."

For over a decade, photographer Catherine Opie has used the power of her lens to create visibility for queer subcultures existing on society's fringes. Her raw and honest photographs challenge viewers to reevaluate notions of sexuality and societal norms. Her groundbreaking work has adorned gallery walls worldwide, including The Guggenheim in New York and The Photographer's Gallery in London.

At the age of 9, Opie decided to become a social documentary photographer after studying the work of Lewis Hine. Inspired by Hine's use of photography as a means to effect social change around child labor, Opie pursued her  passion for documenting the world with her camera. At 18, she left her home in Sandusky, Ohio, to study at the San Francisco Art Institute where she received a BFA in 1985. She earned an MFA from California Institute of the Arts three years later.

In 1995, Opie's career gained momentum after her provocative portraits of gay fringe groups appeared at the Whitney Biennial, one of the world’s leading art shows. Images of pierced, tattooed and leather-clad members of Opie's inner circle were presented to the public in a bold and unapologetic fashion. "Looking at her pictures can be uncomfortable," observed The New York Times, "not because of their confrontational content but because they reveal as much about the beholder as the beheld."

In addition to documenting sexual minority communities, Opie photographs landscapes and architecture. In her exhibit "Freeways" (1994-95) she explores the intricacies of Los Angeles's highway system. In "Mini-malls" (1997-98), she reveals the rich ethnic diversity of Southern California's shopping centers. Combining both landscape and portraiture in her series "Domestic," Opie traveled nationwide photographing lesbian couples living together.

Opie is a professor of photography at UCLA. She has received various awards, including the Washington University Freud Fellowship in 1999 and the Larry Aldrich Award in 2004. In 2006, she was awarded the prestigious United States Artist Fellowship.

In an exhibit catalog interview, Opie reflects, "I have represented this country and this culture. And I’m glad that there is a queer, out, dyke artist that’s being called an American photographer."

Photographer

b. July 21, 1953

"If we don’t know our history we’re going to become forgotten."

Patsy Lynch is a trailblazing photographer whose work documenting several decades of the GLBT civil rights struggle has provided visibility to the movement and inspired activists worldwide.

A native of Washington, D.C., Lynch received her Bachelor of Arts from Elon University, where she started the college newspaper. She earned two master's degrees from Gallaudet University.

Working for both The Advocate and the UPI news agency in the 1970's and 1980's, Lynch was the first openly gay journalist with a White House credential. She was a founding member of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

Through her lens, Lynch chronicled numerous milestones in the GLBT civil rights struggle. She was one of four official photographers at the 1979 Lesbian and Gay March on Washington. She captured lasting images of the AIDS activism movement, including a 1987 protest at the White House and a 1988 die-in organized by ACT UP in Washington.

Lynch served as the photographer for the "Community Pioneers" exhibit of Washington residents who contributed to the struggle for equality. "We need to let people know that we are here, and we’re not going away," Lynch said.

In 1990, the National Gay Press Association named Lynch Photographer of the Year. In 2006, she received a Distinguished Service Award from the Gay and Lesbian Activist Alliance. The following year, she received the Community Pioneer award from the Rainbow History Project. Recently, Lynch has worked on assignment for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), where she documented Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

A resident of the Washington area, Lynch is also a skilled sports photographer, landscape photographer and portrait artist.

Documentarian

b. July 13, 1944

“My thing was to take pictures to make visible what was invisible.”

Joan Biren is an internationally recognized photographer and filmmaker who chronicles gay life. Her photographs are on display in the Library of Congress.

Raised in Washington, D.C., Biren received her bachelor’s degree in political science from Mount Holyoke College and her master’s degree in communications from American University. After studying politics and sociology at Oxford University, Biren returned to the U.S., where she taught herself photography.

In 1969, Biren joined the women’s liberation movement. As one of that movement’s first out lesbians, she cofounded The Furies Collective, a lesbian separatist organization. The Collective published The Furies, a newspaper that had a profound impact on lesbian thought.

The Collective enabled Biren to photograph lesbians for The Furies. After the organization disbanded in 1973, Biren continued photographing LGBT life, eventually publishing two collections: “Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians” (1979) and “Making a Way: Lesbians Out Front” (1987). Both collections received praise for bringing groundbreaking visibility to lesbian life.

After a nationwide tour of “Lesbian Images in Photography, 1850 to the Present,” Biren transitioned to filmmaking. Her film “A Simple Matter of Justice” documented the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

In 2003, Biren released “No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon,” a film chronicling the lives of two pioneering leaders of the lesbian civil rights movement. The film won awards at both LGBT and mainstream film festivals.

Biren lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she continues to document LGBT lives through photography and film.

White House Photographer

b. June 10, 1951

“Never turn down a chance to show what you can do.”

Sharon Farmer was a White House photographer during both terms of the Clinton presidency. She was the first woman and first African-American to direct the office charged with chronicling nearly every second—from the mundane to the monumental—of the nation’s highest office.

Born in Washington, D.C., in 1951, Farmer was interested in photography from a young age. She discovered the power of the medium looking at pictures in her family’s encyclopedia. Farmer attended Ohio State University, intending to study bassoon. She quickly switched her major to photography and honed her skills on the staff of the yearbook.

The Associated Press hired Farmer for a photojournalism internship during her senior year. After graduation, she returned to her hometown of Washington, D.C., where she became a freelancer and photographer for album covers.

In 1993, she was hired as a White House photographer, a fast-paced job in which she used approximately 3,000 rolls of film per year and traveled the globe on a moment’s notice. In 1999, she was promoted to director of White House photography.

During her stint at the White House, Farmer captured many prominent events, including the handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and the swearing in of Nelson Mandela as the president of South Africa.   

Farmer also chronicled many political races, from local to national. In 2004, she served as the head photographer for Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign.

In addition to being featured in individual shows and group exhibitions nationwide, Farmer has lectured for National Geographic and the Smithsonian Institution and has taught at American University. She resides in Washington, D.C. 

Photographer

b. November 4, 1946

d. March 9, 1989

“I’m looking for the unexpected. I’m looking for things I’ve never seen before.”

Robert Mapplethorpe is one of America’s preeminent 20^th century photographers. His works have been displayed in prominent galleries and museums, including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Mapplethorpe was raised in suburban Long Island, New York. He earned his B.F.A. in graphic arts at Pratt Institute.

In the 1970’s, Mapplethorpe’s photographs chronicling the lives of New York’s gay community established him as a unique and controversial talent. Prominent art collector Sam Wagstaff became Mapplethorpe’s lover and bought him a $500,000 Manhattan studio loft, where the artist lived and worked.

Mapplethorpe’s photography encompasses an eclectic mix of subjects: flowers, especially orchids and calla lilies, classical nudes, homoerotic acts, bondage and discipline, and celebrities. Andy Warhol, Richard Gere, Peter Gabriel, Grace Jones and Patti Smith were among the famous people Mapplethorpe photographed.

In the early 1990’s, Mapplethorpe’s “X Portfolio” series sparked a firestorm of criticism when it was included in “The Perfect Moment,” a traveling exhibition funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibit, which featured some of the photographer’s most sexually explicit images, was condemned by conservative religious groups who called on government leaders to withdraw financial support for the “presentation of potentially obscene material.”

When “The Perfect Moment” was installed at the Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati, the center and its director were prosecuted for “pandering obscenity” and subsequently acquitted. The legal wrangling stirred debate about the delineation between art and obscenity and government funding for the arts.    

In 1988, Mapplethorpe established the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, one of the first foundation to fund HIV/AIDS research. The foundation also promotes the art of photography and maintains the artist’s legacy.

In 1989, Mapplethorpe died from complications arising from AIDS. He was 42.