Photo © Tristan Crane
Queerness and photography have been intertwined since the medium’s inception. With early examples such as now-anonymous images of same-sex couples embracing in the nineteenth century, Alice Austen’s photographs of lesbian life in the 1890s, and Wilhelm von Gloeden’s homoerotic images of Sicilian boys staged amid classical architecture and landscape at the beginning of the 20th century, photography has long offered a space to explore sexuality and gender. These early images reveal a medium through which one could explore these themes, either covertly within specific social groups or more overtly under the guise of metaphor or allegory.
We find ourselves in a moment of contradiction. In the United States, there have been significant victories against homophobia, sexism, and transphobia— partial and unevenly experienced, but undeniable. At the same time, as the call for this exhibition reminds us, “queer rights are under attack unlike ever before.” This year, Queer Conscience is positioned within this tension, seeking to push back against these forces while affirming our lived and embodied truths through photography. The works gathered here do precisely that: they affirm and they resist-formally, politically, affectively, and poetically.
-Conor Moynihan
Antonio Pulgarin, Chris Diani, Chris Stevens-Yu, Ethan Riley Wynacht, Evan Schwartz, Gillian Smalley, Harrison Moenich, Jack Hardy, Jason Parent, Jorge Ariel Escobar, Joseph Barretto, Luca Varano, Maddy Falkowitz, Marthinolly, Mason Burton, Michael Young, Michelle Schapiro, Mikha Dominguez, Mixxie James Hernandez, Nick Simko, Olivia LIT LIV Morgan, Patrick Morano, Rocío Salvatierra, Sam Zalutsky, Sophie Spinelle, Spencer Owen, Steve Jensen, Stuart Goldstein, Todd Danforth, Tristan Crane, Wayne Bund, & William Cooper
Conor Moynihan is the Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the RISD Museum. He focuses on the modern and contemporary collection, with a particular research interest in queer art, disability arts, and identity-based practices. His recent exhibitions at the RISD Museum include Variance: Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Disability, The Performative Self-Portrait, and Listen!, an exhibition organized with Christina Alderman and the young artists and art enthusiasts of RISD Art Circle to curate an exhibition from a teen perspective.
Nathan Lomas is a photographer, artist, and educator living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the Production Manager, Instructor, and Gallery Coordinator for The Image Flow Photography Center. He has taught courses at the Academy of Art University San Francisco in the Photography, Graphic Design, and Advertising departments, and is the owner of Heritage Tintype Parlor, a portrait studio specializing in wet plate collodion photography.
Nathan developed the concept for Queer Conscience out of a desire to create more opportunities for queer photographers and artists to share their work. He is currently pursuing the creation of an LGBTQ+ artist residency program that hopes to provide mental health resources to its residents in addition to supporting their creative work and fostering connections to the broader art world.
