If you had to make a rough summary of the latest issue of Aperture Magazine, you could say that it is devoted to the representation of LGBT in the history of photography. However, the word “Queer,” its title and theme, also means “strange” and “unusual,” and the term can be used to insult gays, lesbians and transsexuals. But “queer” has been appropriated, ironically and provocatively, by activist and intellectual gays, lesbians, transexuals, bisexuals, BDSM enthusiasts, fetishists, transvestites, transgendered people and anyone who defies a category of gender and sexual attraction and feelings. The issue revisits photographic representations of this term and the attempts to clarify its definition, if it could ever have one.
As usual, this issue is very rich, both in terms of the images and the series, new and old, with historical references, testimonials, analyses of gender and its influence. Throughout, and because the subject is so complex, many questions are raised, even about the rationale behind the issue. In the introduction, we are told that, “since the culture wars of the 1990s,” as well as the “breaking down of sexual difference,” so-called “queer” photography seems to have come back into fashion, with many contemporary photographers returning to the subject. The first and brilliant text, “Queer Photography?”, written by author Vince Aletti, questions the very existence of gender. The reader is guided by his experiences, stories and references to photography, leading with a finding that, “‘Queer’ is hungry, insatiable. The word refers to no single look, size or sex. ‘Queer’ resists all limitations and refuses to be strictly defined.”
In images, the “queer” asserts itself with guts. Accompanied by other essays from Richard Meyer, Catherine Opie and Sophie Hackett, the photographs are by Katy Grannan, David Wojnarovisz, Berenice Abbott, Sam Wagstaff and Hal Fisher, with the ironically titled Gay Semiotics, as well as a recent series by South African photographer Zanele Muholi. Highlights include portfolios from Jimmy DeSana, Ren Hang, K8 Hardy and many others. These rediscoveries remind one that Aperture is more than a magazine. It’s more like a book that comes out every three months. Indispensable.
MAGAZINE
Aperture #218 : Queer
Spring 2015
$ 24.95
