Be Seen: Portrait Photography Since Stonewall

The 1969 Stonewall riots are viewed as an important turning point in the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. Be Seen explores how artists have used portrait photography to challenge, subvert, and play with societal norms of gender and sexuality. 

In the past 50 years, photographers have documented the experiences of the queer community. They have also examined how gender identity and sexual orientation were viewed historically and how they are constructed today. For many of the artists in Be Seen, gender is not simply something we are, but something we perform. Just as the subjects of these photographs “pose” for the camera, so too do we perform our gender through the clothes we wear and how we interact with others.​

Be Seen features Tad Beck, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nan Goldin, Martine Gutierrez, Peter Hujar, Christopher Makos, Robert Mapplethorpe, Mark Morrisroe, Ana Mendieta, Yasumasa Morimura, Zanele Muholi, Catherine Opie, John O’Reilly, Jack Pierson, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Cindy Sherman, Patti Smith, Sage Sohier, Gail Thacker, Mickalene Thomas, Tourmaline and Sasha Wortzel, Iké Udé, Conrad Ventur, Chris Verene, Andy Warhol, and David Wojnarowicz.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website