Butch in Progress

Berencie Abbott (1898-1991) - Lesbian Portraits

[B] It’s monday night and therefore most definetly time to introduce another lesbian photographer. Right?

Berencie Abbott is most known for her photographs of New York’s cityscape, but especially in the context of queer history and aesthetics her portraits of lesbian and bisexuals left a lasting impression. The portraits here show Gwen Le Gallienne, Jane Heap (my personal favorite), Janet Flanner, Solita Solano and last but not least Sylvia Beach.

To fulfill everyones desire for lesbian gossip, Berencie Abbott had a relationship with Thelma Wood and Tylia Perlmutter.

Pulp Cut Attack

[K] I never would have expected there actually is a way to make pulp novel covers even more entertaining … but innovative cutting and deep focus seems to do the trick (I’m tempted to make a film-nerdy Citizen Cane joke, but I guess that’s now why you’re here.) Can I make a request for a cut-out-version of Satan was a Lesbian?

Photography and awesomeness by: Thomas Allen.

(Source: golberz.com)

Frances Benjamin Johnston - Early uber queer self-portraits

[B] Frances Benjamin Johnston was one of the earliest female photographers. Her first camera was given to her byGeorge Eastman, the man you actually invented the Kodak camera. She’s well known for her work as photojournalist, White House photographer and her awesome uber queer selfportraits. The most famous definetly is the second one:

Her famous self-portrait (ca 1896) seated with her skirt pulled up, crossed legs exposed, smoking a cigarette and grasping a beer stein was her radical take on the concept of the “New Woman” being touted in contemporary literature. (Source)

Despite her work as photographer she published an article called”What a Woman Can Do With a Camera” and served as a curator of the Paris Exposition of 1900. Romantically, she was linked toMattie Edwards Hewitt, also a well-known photographer.

Agnes Goodsir 1864-1939 - Portraits of the Queer 1920s

[B] Agnes Goodsir was lucky enough to live through the 1920s. On top of that she lived and worked in Paris, the place to be during that time. She’s well known for her portraits and her fascination with the queer life of the time, as you can see in her painting The Parisienne (1924). One of her favorite motifs was her long-term companion Rachel Dunn shown in the second painting Girl with Cigarette (1925).

“The All-time Ultimate Gallery of Famous Dykes”

[K] Truman Capote on Romaine Brooks’ portraits - admittedly, he does have a point: pictured you see

• Ida Rubinstein (1885-1960): dancer (for Ballet Russes among others),  bisexual, with a taste for scandal on and off stage and 3-year affair with Romaine Brooks
• Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein) (1895-1978): gender-bending painter with a vast selection of female lovers
• Lady Una Troubridge (1887-1963): writer, translator and partner of Radclyffe Hall
• Lily de Gramont (1875-1954): aristocrat, writer and long-term partner of Natalie Clifford Barney
• Natalie Clifford Barney (1876-1972): novelist, poet, owner of a salon in Paris, where all the cool kids (=lesbians) hang out, lover of almost every famous lesbian of that generation including the women mentioned above and below

And finally:

• Romaine Brooks herself (1874 - 1970): painter (obviously) and long-term partner of writer Natalie Clifford Barney

G.B. Jones - Tom Girl drawings

[B] G.B. Jones is what you might call an artistic multi-talent: She’s a musician, a filmmaker, an artis, a publisher worked among others with Bruce la Bruce and Caroline Azar. On top of that she’s openly gay and so is her work.

G.B. Jones has an uneasy fascination with authority and uses her gender and sexual preference to exploit fantasies of rock & roll, sex, groupies, booze, drugs, money, leather, torn jeans,motorcycles and stardom as an all out assault against values that would strive for assimilation of queer culture into the mainstream. She’s every queer girl and boy’s hero, whether you want her to be or not. Believe it or don’t, she is looking out for every queer’s best interests. (Source)

The drawings here are from different series such as Tattoo Girls, Cruising and I am a Fascist Pig, which was inspired by the idea of a lesbian fantasy movie like Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! For more information about her artwork and some other drawings you should go and visit queer-arts.org. 

(Excerpt from) Night Hunter by Stacey Steers

[K] Besides gay ladies, I really like silent film, and since I’m missing an outlet for that particular passin right now, bear with me for a moment as I introduce you to this amazing short film:

In this handmade film, composed of more than four thousand collages, the actress Lilian Gish is seamlessly appropriated from silent-era cinema and plunged into a new and haunting role. Night Hunter evokes a disquieting dreamscape, drawn from allegory, myth, and archetype. Music and sound by Larry Polansky. (StaceySteers.com)

(Maybe it’s also time to add Night Hunters non-nomination for the Oscars to my growing list of Academy-Award-related disappointments this year.)

Jeanne Mammen (1890 - 1976)

[K] Despite my fondness for photography, I find myself enthralled by these paintings that capture the energy of Berlin’s lesbian subculture at its finest…

(I’m might get nostalgic again for something I never experienced - but it’s hard not too - they all look gorgeous, defiant and fierce in the best possible way.)

In case you - like me until ca. 48 hours ago - are not quite familiar with the creator of these art works, how’s this for an introduction:

Jeanne Mammen was one of the most talented artists and illustrators to emerge from Germany’s Weimar epoch (1919-1933), … At a time when the predominant style was a frequently harsh and unflattering realism, Mammen dedicated her art to the gently satirical, sometimes sympathetic, representation of Berlin’s diverse constituencies, particularly the newly visible lesbian. (ArtTattler)

Marlene Dietrich re-invented as Street Art

For more amazing street art photography by Ulrich Blanchet go to his flickr photostream.

Tina Fiveash - Stories for Girls (1994)

[B] Tina Fiveash is an Australian photographer who’s known for her sexuality and gender themed photography. Her portfolio reads like a über-gay fairytale: Queer Love in the 50s, The Outlaws, Hey Hetero!, Tomboy. The photos you see here are from her series Stories for Girls:

Inspired by girl’s annuals and the Australian Women’s Weekly magazine from the 1950s, Stories for Girls is a tongue-in-cheek attempt torecreate missing lesbian photographic history from an era where homosexuality was a criminal offense, and lesbians were forced to remain in the closet and keep their relationships hidden from society. (Source)

The Beauty Book. 2.0

[K] Annie Leibovitz’ on her latest book project Pilgrimage, which - unusually for her oeuvre - doesn’t feature any people, but instead places and things, landscapes and material:

“Several years ago, Susan Sontag and I were planning something that we called the Beauty Book. The Beauty Book was going to provide an excuse for us to travel around to places we cared about and wanted to see. For me, it meant going back to taking pictures when I was moved to take a picture. When there wasn’t an agenda. If you are on assignment for a magazine, there are always agendas. Things that have to get done. I care about my assignment work, but I wanted to try working without that pressure. To be in a situation where I took a picture just because I saw it.
After Susan died, I knew that I couldn’t do the Beauty Book, although as time passed, I realized that I might do a different book, with a different list of places. The list would, inevitably, be colored by my memory of Susan and what she was interested in but it would be my list.” (FeminineMoments)

(Pictures courtesy of NewYorkTimes)

Treasures from Mercedes de Acosta’s Bequest - Portraits

[K] If you’re following this blog, you are already away of the many reasons Mercedes de Acosta is worth remembering/the many ladies laid which earned her a bright spot in lesbian herstory.

If not, a quick reminder by celebrity photographer (and friend of Greta Garbo) Cecil Beaton:

“She was one of the most rebellious & brazen of Lesbians”.

(Another gay male fan would be Truman Capote, who assumed her to be the joker in his “International Daisy Chain” card game - think “6 degrees of separation”.)

Still, so far, we haven’t had the photographic evidence to proof her awesomeness and swagger. This is about to change, as it finally occurred to me to have a look the the Rosenbach Museum and Library’s online collection, to which Mercedes de Acosta had sold all her pictures and letters in 1960 (Good things come to those who wait… until it finally dawns on them.). Among them the much-hyped letters from Greta Garbo, which the museum was by de Acosta’s request not allowed to publish until 10 years after Garbo’s death. (Even though they weren’t by far as racy as some had hoped them to be.)

Focusing not on Garbo for a change, we proudly present portraits of one of my favorite vintage butches of all time, Mercedes de Acosta herself, as well as some of her celebrity friends such as Alfred Stieglitz and Getrude Stein.

All pictures courtesy of the Rosenbach Museum and Libary.