Beloved Friend Debuts Documentary Photography

We’ve been so busy that I haven’t posted a blog/newsletter lately, other than to announce our new podcast The Art of Documentary Storytelling, which is getting rave reviews!

However, I wanted to make a special announcement for my beloved friend and New Doc Editing assistant, Phyllis Christopher. She is an intrepid artist who is being “discovered” in her 50’s.

Her new photography show Contacts debuts later this month at the prestigious Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in the UK. And I’m flying there next week for the big event!

Phyllis’s show is an intimate documentation of the lesbian community in San Francisco in the 1990’s. At the time we were lovers; we later became best, life-long friends.

We came of age watching the great gay male documentaries of the day: Before Stonewall (1984); Common Threads: Stories of the Quilt (1987); Tongues Untied (1989); and my all-time favorite documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk (1984).

Phyllis tread where gay male filmmakers and photographers had not, documenting queer women in the sheets, the streets, and the clubs. She also co-produced my first documentary, “Framing Lesbian Fashion”.

These were heady times; we felt like we were at the vanguard of culture-making, even as we fought for faster action on treatment for AIDS!

Like great verite documentary films, Phyllis’s work features visceral, in-the-moment documentation of places most viewers have never been before. HBO called Phyllis “North America’s leading photographer of lesbian erotica”.

Get a glimpse of her groundbreaking work through her new photobook “Dark Room: San Francisco Sex and Protest 1988-2003”. I hope it will inspire you!