Pictures of the Year International

Hoodie and Kathy stand in their hollyhock garden in front of their home in Bicknell, Utah. They were together for 34 years before Kathy tragically passed away in December 2023. (August, 2023) My project is titled, “Hidden Once, Hidden Twice,” a long term visual documentation chronicling the lives of senior lesbian partnerships across the U.S., fulfilling a severely underrepresented visual archive of LGBTQ+ history in this country. For decades, LGBTQ+ individuals had to conceal their identity and often live a double life. As the younger LGBTQ+ community has become heavily documented in recent years, there is a gap in this specific demographic of marginalized women. By focusing on older generations of queer women in love, it will provide a modern case study of how these resilient and courageous partnerships survived decades of obstacles to arrive in the present day-together. By utilizing digital and medium format photography, I continue to document portraits, personal ephemera, and the daily life of older lesbian women in their homes. I find that the approach of documenting them in where they are most comfortable and spend the most time translates to a more intimate and humanizing tone. As I plan to travel to all 50 states, it will become an incredibly diverse array of participants, including but not limited to: indigenous/two spirit women, trans women, BIPOC women, disabled women, and continuing to focus on unexpected regions in the country where they have found a safe haven. So far, I have gone to 9 states and photographed 40 partnerships. By photographing and conducting video interviews with every couple, it will serve as an educational resource for generations to come as well as preserving the stories and triumphs of generations of women that fought for civil rights, human rights, and LGBTQ rights. Where many older lesbian women have and remain activists, change makers, and powerful influences in the queer community, there are stories of joy, overcoming obstacles, and a lifetime of details that I want to also represent to give context to a group that was often overlooked decades ago and now continually are overlooked for their age. This is an intersectional narrative that will boldly represent a disappearing swath of women where love has won, despite all odds.