For the ghosts of lesbians past - and present

Domestic by Catherine Opie - lesbian couples in their home environment across the United States

Domestic by Catherine Opie - lesbian couples in their home environment across the United States

Domestic by Catherine Opie - lesbian couples in their home environment across the United States

By Zach Toppin

Quim Magazine, 1994

"I love it when you get that look. Big, beautiful butch that you are. The girl comes out all over your face. In your skin, in your smile and oh, baby when it gets to your eyes. That's when it gets to me. You fucking flirt, giving me all that girlie come-on. You even wiggle your hips at me. Do you know what that does to me? Knowing what's underneath the boys t-shirt and Levi's. Smooth skin, soft tits, beautiful lovely waist so perfectly indented for me to wrap my hands around, to begin that slide into the full curve of your hips. And so I sink. Into the lushness of your body, hands full of flesh, where do I begin? I want to run my hands lightly over all that lushness. Big thighs, meaty arse, I turn into a carnivore.

Lesbian Patches by Sarah-Joy Ford, available for purchase

photography by Honey Lee Cottrell

"Facing the onslaught of AIDS in the 1980s, California activists produced public health campaigns that encouraged safer sexual practices by making them look sexy. Erotic images distinguished California activists’ public health campaigns for safer sex. In that spirit, these photographs by Honey Lee Cottrell eroticize and bring an artist’s eye to using latex dental dams and gloves. Lesbian AIDS activists suggested using these medical supplies to create barriers between mouths, genitals, and hands as methods for safer sex." - source

"The world cannot deny us" by Sarah-Joy Ford, 2018

"what is it about her?" Quim Magazine, 1994 issue 5

Photography by Lola Flash from Quim Magazine 1994, Issue 5

Graphite drawing by G.B. Jones "Tom girls"

"LEZZIE" - acrylic on canvas by Betty Tompkins

"I’ve spoken about this a lot — it was at the height of the AIDS epidemic, so, late ‘80s. It was a terrible time for all of us. We were watching our friends die. The women’s community was sort of having to be strong and develop a voice out of that grief. We were really partying hard and having to demonstrate constantly. One of the reasons I was interested in photographing sex was, for one thing, no one ever talked about lesbian sex in the mainstream press. So we wanted to communicate and develop a language and educate each other. It was also a time when you had to graphically talk about sex. People were dying because they were having sex, and the government, the doctors — no one was telling us anything. We were learning new things every day, and we had to communicate it. It became necessary to be very graphic."

- Photographer Phyllis Christopher in an interview for her book Dark Room, 2022

Phyllis Christopher, ‘Heads and Tails’, 2021, exhibition view, Grand Union, Birmingham