Over the past three decades, Parisian photographer and filmmaker Sebastien Lifshitz has been obsessed with vintage photographs, collecting anonymous albums from flea markets around the world. But, when he stumbled upon a collection of personal photo albums once belonging to a gay couple in the 1950s, Lifshitz was struck by the fearlessness of queer couples of the past. “It was quite unusual to have intimate photographs of gay people because most of the time they had to be very discreet,” he told The Daily Beast. To produce these kinds of pictures came with the risk of being exposed—by developing the film—during a time when it was generally unacceptable to be open about your same-sex partner. “For me, it is a memory that we need to show—all these attitudes, the freedom, and the open minded spirit of the past.” Spanning the years from 1900 to 1970, Lifshitz's recent book, The Invisibles: Vintage Portraits of Love and Pride, covers three aspects of yesteryear's queer lifestyles—people clearly in same-sex relationships, those that are ambiguous, and groups that simply play with gender norms. With no context of the lives of those presented, we are left with a glimpse of the past that both accepted and embraced an “alternative” lifestyle.
Sebastien Lifshitz
Sebastien Lifshitz
Sebastien Lifshitz
Sebastien Lifshitz
Sebastien Lifshitz
Sebastien Lifshitz
The Invisibles: Vintage Portraits of Love and Pride is available from Rizzoli.
