Photographer of Lesbian Intimacy — Blind Magazine

In January 2023, Donna Gottschalk met author Hélène Giannecchini for the primary time. Although some 40 years separated them, an instantaneous connection was established between them. While looking for photographs for her upcoming ebook on friendship, Hélène explored Donna’s archives and picked up her phrases, her story. Deeply moved by Donna’s life and images, Hélène got down to echo them. At the intersection of previous and current struggles, the intersection of their two tales, private and collective, provoked a shift in narratives.

Photography, artwork historical past, literature: their practices differ, however they share a typical dedication: to creating seen lives which were stored outdoors of dominant narratives. This exhibition and this ebook, each entitled “Nous autres” (We Others), are the results of their encounter.

In the next interview, Hélène Giannecchini tells us about their relationship and Gottschalk’s work.

You are a author, researcher, and modern artwork theorist, and, amongst different issues, director of the Alix Cléo Roubaud Fund. Why did you turn out to be enthusiastic about Donna Gottschalk?

I found her work in 2023, after I was writing my ebook An Inordinate Desire for Friendship and in search of representations of friendship, significantly within the queer neighborhood, which wasn’t really easy to seek out. A pal, Isabelle Alfonsi, advised me about Donna Gottschalk’s work, and I occurred to be in New York on the time. I used to be fortunate sufficient to have the ability to go meet her in Vermont, and I used to be completely amazed by what I found.

How did you method her work and the way would you describe it?

From the outset, I had a really private and subjective relationship with Donna’s work because it was in her presence, in her studio. She confirmed me images, taking them out one after the other, and advised me that she and I had been going to make a kind of pact: she was going to inform me all of the tales contained in her photographs after which I used to be going to put in writing them down. The questions of portraiture and intimacy are central to her method, since she photographed these near her, the individuals she cherished probably the most, her household, her brothers and sisters, her pals, her neighbors, her lovers, however additionally it is a piece on social courses. Donna was very enthusiastic about marginalized individuals, single moms, immigrants, the homeless, this poor inhabitants of New York, in addition to LGBT individuals. Her work encourages us to consider one other manner of conceiving artwork historical past, to be able to spotlight those that haven’t been checked out sufficient.

It escapes basic documentary images. I’ve very hardly ever seen queer individuals photographed on this manner since they’re basically captured by two kinds of iconography: activism on the one hand, and celebration on the opposite. This images of on a regular basis life inherits a sure American custom that Donna has checked out loads, however which she additionally transforms to seek out this proximity, this fragility, this emotion that emerges from her images.

What shocked you most about discovering her work and conducting quite a few interviews with Donna Gottschalk?

It’s how she remembers the individuals she photographed 50 years in the past. She’s even capable of quote their phrases, to explain their voice and intonation. What additionally shocked me is that she photographed what normally escapes our gaze, what’s most tenuous in our bonds.

Donna was a lesbian activist, a member of the Gay Liberation Front, and marched within the Christopher Street march in the summertime of 1970, the primary Gay Pride parade in New York City. But she by no means captured the occasions straight; she didn’t {photograph} the activists on the podium, however those that pay attention; not the marches, however the hours spent ready beforehand, at residence together with her pals. Her work additionally tells one other story of the United States.

The exhibition “Nous autres” (We Others), offered on the BAL, brings collectively dozens of beforehand unseen photographs and is her first monographic exhibition in Europe. Why did she stay so nameless for thus lengthy, significantly within the United States?

Because she selected to not present her work. Donna Gottschalk comes from a really working-class background and has needed to work fairly onerous all her life to help herself and her family members. She labored in numerous jobs: driving a carriage in Central Park, waitressing, taxi driver… She then opened a silver halide print lab. When I met her, she had simply turned 75 and was a caregiver. So she didn’t have the leisure to develop an inventive profession. I don’t even know if she ever thought she had the correct to 1.

She additionally photographed her family members who lived on the margins of society: lesbian, trans, and homosexual individuals, the poor individuals within the neighborhood the place she grew up. Donna believed that these individuals have suffered sufficient violence of their lives with out desirous to share her photographs. Not displaying them was, for her, a manner of defending these she cherished most. But once we met in 2023, she was able to do it.

American photographer and images historian Carla Williams wrote a textual content within the ebook revealed by Atelier EXB. Can you inform us concerning the circumstances below which you met her?

I used to be in New York City, getting back from a analysis journey to Donna’s residence in Vermont, and my pal Moyra Davey really useful I see a Carla Williams exhibition on the Higher Pictures gallery. Like Donna, Carla had stored her work a secret for years. I used to be, once more, dazzled by her work and struck, too, by the parallels between her story and that of Donna Gottschalk.

Carla Williams is a famend artwork historian. But I didn’t know she had produced a number of self-portraits throughout her scholar years. Her work stems from a recognition of the shortage of representations of Black girls in artwork historical past. Since these images didn’t exist, she determined to take them. But after graduating, she didn’t present them to anybody for a number of years. The exhibition I noticed in 2023 was the primary since her commencement.

When I met Carla, she additionally advised me that she had {a photograph} hanging above her desk. This picture, which she had lower out of a Eighties journal, had given her the braveness to take images of her personal. In this picture, taken by Diana Davis in 1970, we see a younger lady posing throughout the Christopher Street march. She is holding an indication that reads, “I’m your worst fear, I’m your best fantasy,” and this younger lady is Donna! Carla couldn’t consider she had lived with this picture in her residence for years with out understanding that this stranger was in reality Donna. I then organized for them to fulfill in New York and Carla wrote an exquisite textual content about this assembly with Donna. 

Should we see within the title of the exhibition and the ebook, Nous Autres, a manner of reconsidering the queer neighborhood and the feminist motion within the United States?

The “we” within the title primarily encompasses Donna, her pals, and her family members, but it surely’s additionally the three of us: Carla, Donna, and me. It’s an affirmation of neighborhood, of connections, and of distinction. It’s a We that emerges from the margins, that may be a minority for numerous causes; it’s a We that has generally needed to combat and that’s Other, in comparison with the dominant narrative. The exhibition and the ebook present a perspective on the United States, as we want it, however resonate very a lot with what is going on within the United States at this time.

The exhibition “Nous autres” (We Others) is on view at Le Bal, in Paris, till November 16, 2025. The eponymous book is revealed by Atelier EXB and is obtainable for €49.

This interview was performed by Philippe Séclier for Atelier EXB.