Getty Museum's Queer Photography Exhibit Arrives At Critical Moment

Forbes

a day ago

Two Young Men Kissing in Photo Booth, about 1953 Joseph John Bertrund Belanger. Gelatin silver print ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, Los Angeles Joseph John Bertrund Belanger / Courtesy of the Getty Museum
Photography's two-century history has never been viewed through a queer perspective, at least in the United State s. The J. Paul Getty Museum's Queer Lens: A History of Photography remedies that omission. An adjacent Getty Museum exhibit, $3 Bill: Evidence of Queer Lives, celebrates the contributions of LGBTQ+ artists over the last century.
The array of LGBTQ+ merchandise for the Getty show, "Queer Lens." R. Daniel Foster
Queer Lens showcases over 270 photographs created by LGBTQ+ and straight artists from the 19th century to the present. Eight chronological sections unfold, starting with early homosocial portraiture and drag culture, and proceeding to the AIDS crisis and its trenchant images of sorrow, along with rage at the inaction of the Reagan administration. The exhibition continues through September 28, 2025.
Mattachine Society 'Sip-In' Julius' Bar, New York, NY, 1966; printed later Fred W. McDarrah Gelatin silver print Image: © Fred W. McDarrah / MUUS Collection Fred W. McDarrah / MUUS Collection / Courtesy of the Getty Museum
The exhibits delve into the 'Pansy Craze,' a Prohibition-era phenomenon where underground gay clubs and speakeasies thrived in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. 'Hiding in Plain Sight' documents those serving in uniform who formed close-knit groups of friends and lovers throughout the 1930s and 1940s. The 'Rise of the Gay Liberation Movement' includes scores of photographs from 1950s homophile groups.
The steps leading up to the Getty Museum, styled in a rainbow array for the exhibit, "Queer Lens." R. Daniel Foster
The show has become an affirmative nod to the LGBTQ+ community as it faces new pushback to rights. In May, the Trump administration won a U.S. Supreme Court case allowing the Department of Defense to ban transgender individuals from serving in the military. On August 7, the U.S. Air Force announced it would deny early retirement for transgender service members with between 15 to 18 years of service, removing them from service with no retirement benefits.
The generous inclusion of trans individuals in Queer Lens is, given recent news, especially noteworthy. Victorian Scandals and Cross-Dressing Trials
Two-spirit Zuni weaver, potter and spiritual leader We'wha, John K. Hillers, photographed between 1879-1894 R. Daniel Foster
As if observing modern gender culture wars, the two-spirit Zuni weaver, potter and spiritual leader, We'wha gazes with intent in a photograph shot by John K. Hillers. Shown holding a basket and dressed in traditional Zuni clothing, We'wha fulfills a traditional third-gender role, although an inscription on the print identifies them as a 'Zuni woman.' The photograph was shot between 1879-1894.
Similarly, modern-day battles over men who dress in women's clothing—drag queens—are seen through a new historical lens.
Frederick Park and Ernest Boulton, aka Fanny and Stella, about 1870. Fred Spalding. Reproduced by courtesy of Essex Record Office, D/F 269/1/371 Fred Spalding / Courtesy of the Getty Museum
In a sepia-tinted work, Ernest Boulton leans languidly into Frederick Park, his arms clasped around Park's waist. The men are artfully dressed in Victorian silk dresses, their coiffed hair braided, and ornamented (in Park's case) with a simple crown of three spheres. The photograph by Fred Spalding was shot around 1870. The pair were regulars on the London stage—Victorian cross-dressers who billed themselves as Franny and Stella. Trouble began when they appeared dressed in public as women. They were arrested and charged with sodomy, which carried the sentence of hard labor for life.
The celebrity trial was a British sensation (penny pamphlets, which thrived on scandalous tales, had a field day). The furor died down after the men were found not guilty and released.
Untitled, 1927 James Van Der Zee Gelatin silver print Image. Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company, © James Van Der Zee Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image courtesy Henry Art Gallery James Van Der Zee / Courtesy of the Getty Museum
In 1927, a group of gender nonconforming Black Americans sat for photographer James Van Der Zee in his Harlem portrait studio, an 80-year institution. The Getty Museum notes that Van Der Zee portrayed the group 'with dignity,' and took 'pride in his work by adding his signature to the lower-left corner of the photograph.'
A 1917 film still from the silent movie, 'The Amazons." R. Daniel Foster
A 1917 film still from the silent movie, The Amazons, shows three women nattily dressed as men. The plot: aristocratic parents who raise their daughters as sons. 'With gender confusion as a central motif, the film exemplifies the American public's growing fascination with cross-dressing,' notes the Getty Museum.
The Gay Deceiver, about 1939; printed 1950 Weegee (Arthur Fellig) Gelatin silver print Image. Getty Museum © International Center of Photography Weegee (Arthur Fellig) Courtesy of the Getty Museum
Dressed in a mink, a straw hat and a skirt (that he cheekily lifts), the man in 'The Gay Deceiver,' shot around 1939, steps out of a paddy wagon after being arrested for wearing women's clothes. 'Through the mid-twentieth century, police took advantage of old laws to target queer people who dressed outside of socially accepted gender norms,' notes the Getty Museum. The photographer, Weegee (Arthur Fellig), 'often followed Manhattan emergency services to document their work at crime and accident scenes.' A Swiss Villa's Homoerotic Eden
The adjacent exhibit $3 Bill: Evidence of Queer Lives, holds surprises, among them photographs and other documentation from Sanctuarium Artis Elisarion, a Lake Maggiore Swiss villa that the owner, Elisar von Kupffer (1872–1942) shared with his partner Eduard von Mayer. The pioneering couple used their wealth and position to advocate for the acceptance of queer people. Their neo-religious group, 'Elisarion Community,' espoused the philosophy of Klarismus (clarity), its aim to form an alternative community that sought spiritual renewal through art.
Entrance to the Getty Museum's "$3 Bill" exhibit. R. Daniel Foster
The couple's art-filled villa, with its expansive murals—photographs of which the Getty Museum features—depicts a homoerotic Eden. The villa was a gathering spot for gay men, a kind of artistic cult, and certainly a haven during harsher times for the community.
'In the center of the villa is a round room that houses his heroic mural Klarwelt der Seligen ,' writes Christopher Harrity in The Advocate magazine. 'The painting depicts 84 nude, youthful men in various states of ethereal ecstasy and affection. There is a series of poems for each grouping and panel of the mural.'