These
photographic diptychs of LGBTQ+ people in America express the acute
vulnerability of coming out
From
2011 to 2015, Brooklyn-based photographer Ash Kolodner (born 1987)
traveled across the United States photographing hundreds of LGBTQ+
individuals of all ages. They made two consecutive portraits of each
of their subjects, photographing them twice during the same sitting:
once with eyes closed and then with eyes open. These diptychs
symbolize the vulnerability many have felt at the outset of
discovering their personal identities, and then the realization and
self-actualization manifest in the intimate and profound process of
coming out.
Through
more than 180 color portraits, along with subject interviews and
contributing texts by filmmaker Kimberly Peirce and Tony
award-winning producer Jordan Roth, and icon and performer, RuPaul,
Gayface
reflects the beauty, intimacy and sometimes the pain of a community
kept in the shadows for decades. Ultimately these pictures and this
handsome volume represent a revelatory statement on the profound
humanity we all share.
