"When Donna Gottschalk came out as gay to her mother, she replied: You've chosen a rough path. It was New York in the 1960s, homosexuality was illegal and, as the photographer reflects in a video piece included in her new exhibition We Others: There were no happy gay people."
"A sharp interruption cuts through the images of quiet and care: a 1979 image of their face, close up, after a severe gay bashing with a golf club, their eyelids swollen and purple. The image—taken at Myla's request—pulses with their shared indignation."
"In the pictures, there is little separation between the public and political. One of Gottschalk's best-known images depicts a couple huddled under a rough-looking blanket on a single bed, in another collapsing apartment. Above them is a poster from the Revolutionary Women's Conference: Lesbians Unite!"
Donna Gottschalk's exhibition 'We Others' presents photographs documenting LGBTQ+ experiences in 1960s New York, accompanied by texts by French writer Helene Giannecchini. The work captures Gottschalk's personal journey accepting her identity while becoming involved with the Gay Liberation Front. Central to the exhibition is the parallel evolution of Gottschalk and her sister Myla's sexualities, from childhood innocence through adolescence to adulthood. The photographs reveal the harsh realities of the era, including a devastating image of Myla after a gay bashing, alongside moments of quiet care and eventual happiness. The exhibition blurs boundaries between personal and political, featuring images that integrate activist messaging with intimate domestic scenes, reflecting the inseparability of private identity and public resistance during this transformative period.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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