Audre Lorde taught and inspired me with her life and her words. She believed that silence would not protect us and that we had to find our voices and speak out even when we were afraid. "We fear the visibility without which we cannot truly live. And that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which is also the source of our greatest strength."
—Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider
C2011.12.7

Some photographs where the women have lots of clothes on are more naked than nude depictions. Maybe it's the way we look at each other when we feel free. Being women together goes beyond equals; women together are exponential.

As Adrienne Rich wrote:
two women, eye to eye
measuring each other's spirit, each other's
limitless desire.
a whole new poetry beginning here
—Transcendental Etude
C2011.12.8

Using non-patriarchal language and spelling was part of re-inventing everything. Saying ovular instead of seminar is choosing a word with the root "ovum" (egg) not "semen." In an article for "The Blatant Image," a magazine that emerged from the Ovulars, I wrote: "The words associated with photography are heavy with the uses to which it has been put: "load and shoot" the camera, "capture" the image. We can change the way we talk: "make" a picture, "embrace" the muse, and so on. But we must also change the process. Taking off our own clothes when we are photographing nudes, for example, helps equalize the power dynamic."
C2011.12.9

aftermath

Did you know I watch you If I close my eyes
as you cuddle with sleep? they become a cool drink
Propped on my elbow, full and wet
close, your breath brushes house an active tongue
back silence that travels my body
like a swimmer parting water. like an explorer
Your lips are tight tracing familiar ground.
now.
—Pat Parker
C2011.12.10

I had never seen a picture of two women kissing and I wanted to see it. I borrowed a camera, but I didn't even know anybody else I could ask to pose for it. So I held the camera out at arm's length and kissed my lover, Sharon, and took the picture. That's my first lesbian photograph.
C2011.12.12

In between smashing monogamy and the nuclear family and liberating the clit, we always had time for a good game of softball. In DC, the fields we played on were near the Lincoln Memorial. I always felt both awe and anger as I was reminded of all the emancipations that had been won and those that were yet to come.
C2011.12.15

LGBT people generally don't have visual markers - like ethnicity, skin color or visible disabilities - and that allows most of us to remain unseen. This is a problem for a photographer. Especially at a time when fear kept so many in the closet, marches were one of the best places to photograph LGBT folks. This NY march commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in June. Maria and Tracy are gearing up for the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights to be held later in the year. At the DC protest, women of color carried the lead banner and were followed by an astonishing 100,000 marchers.
C2011.12.16

I've always been a lesbian. Early in my life, I had a conscious awareness that I'd better know everything there is to know about surviving, because I was going to be responsible for myself. My strength developed through day-to-day kinds of labor like moving furniture, shoveling snow and pushing my car. Powerlifting - using weights - directly confronts the belief that women are weak. We all have muscles and we can all make them stronger. It gives you a lot of power dealing with men. When you know your body is just as good as his, you can't be physically intimidated.
—Susan Smith
C2011.12.17

Julie: Both Jinny and Jinx are my lovers, but they're not lovers with each other. Jinx and I had no plan to fall in love. When you have a stable relationship like the one Jinny and I had for 22½ years, at age 50—Jinny was 56 and Jinx 49—upsetting the whole apple cart is not the wisest thing to do.
Jinny: I was basically pretty monogamous and it upset me a lot.
Jinx: I think monogamy is a very bad trip. I think being shackled to one person always would be the most boring thing in the world.
C2011.12.18

Monique Wittig was a founder of the French Women's Liberation Movement and a writer, perhaps best known for her essays on lesbian feminist theory in The Straight Mind and her novels Les Guérillères and The Lesbian Body.
There was a time when you were not a slave, remember that. You walked alone, full of laughter, you bathed bare-bellied…. You say there are no words to describe this time, you say it does not exist. But remember. Make an effort to remember. Or, failing that, invent.
—Monique Wittig Les Guerilleres
C2011.12.19

We believe that we are part of a changing universal consciousness that has long been feared and prophesied by the patriarchs. The Great Goddess is bringing back her worship and the memory of her daughters - the witches and amazons. We gave birth to society long ago and we can remake tomorrow's society.
—Z. Budapest, THE FEMINIST BOOK OF LIGHTS AND SHADOWS
C2011.12.20

Merle Woo is a radical feminist, lesbian, and socialist who works on a wide range of issues. The University of California at Berkeley fired her twice for her political beliefs and activism. She sued and won reinstatement both times. In the early 1970s, I was a member of The Furies, a radical lesbian feminist separatist collective. Our ideology was that if you identified as a lesbian, you would give your energy to women and fight against all the manifestations of male supremacy, which included sexism, racism, classism, and homophobia. Separatism is often misunderstood to mean single-issue politics. Yet, like Merle Woo, we were multi-issue socialists.
C2011.12.21

In 1978, the National Organization for Women (NOW) organized a protest to demand an indefinite extension of time to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). In NOW's early years, lesbians were considered a threat, a "lavender menace." NOW's leadership feared that if lesbians were visibly involved, the whole women's movement would be damaged and dismissed as "man-haters." By the time of this march, NOW recognized lesbian rights and we openly joined in the fight for the ERA.
C2011.12.22

Judy Dlugacz and Ginny Berson were part of Olivia Records, a women's recording company. Helaine Harris was a founder of Women in Distribution (WinD), a clearinghouse for lesbian and feminist printers, publishers and bookstores. The 70s was a decade of furious creation by lesbian feminist authors, musicians, artists, photographers, and filmmakers. A parallel explosion of energy was devoted to controlling the means of production and distribution of our cultural work. We wanted to be independent of the male-dominated exploitative economic system so we built worker-controlled alternative institutions like Olivia and WinD.
C2011.12.23

Bottom:
Crowd watches Casse Culver sing, Washington, DC, 1974
Printed 2011
Digital silver halide C-type print

Sometimes, like here where Casse Culver is singing, we enjoyed sharing our culture with anyone who was interested. Other times, like when I presented my slide shows about lesbian photography, it was in women-only space. I wanted to provide a safe setting because the shows contained lesbian erotica and other images that were unfamiliar.
C2011.12.25