I chose these 6 artists for various reasons, but what was most important for me was their unique approaches, influence, and diversity. I chose two well-known artists for the original generation of queer art, Cahun and Opie, because they set the precedent for future queer artists and their work is important for both the advancement of art photography and queer art. I also chose a lesser-known artist, Laura Aguilar, because her work importantly represents the marginalized group of gay women of color at the Plush Pony lesbian bar in Los Angeles. She was a queer woman of color herself, she was Mexican American, so it is important to study her contributions to queer photography.

The three artists of the new generation represent a diversity of identities and backgrounds. Dugan and Barberio are both transgender and use they/them pronouns with Barberio being feminine-presenting and Dugan being masculine-presenting. Brown is a gay man and a person of color, he is Black. More than anything, these artists play with photographic portraiture conventions to produce a new era of queer photography by centering queerness, humanizing their queer sitters, and undermining stereotypes about and negativity towards the queer community.

This exhibition website is a project for my WDC-640 class at Agnes Scott College. This is not a real exhibition. If you have any questions or concerns about this website or the artists featured here, please contact Camryn King at camrynmking@gmail.com