TWO EXHIBITIONS OF PORTRAITS BY AWARD-WINNING PHOTOGRAPHER CHRIS JEPSON FOR LGBTQ+ HISTORY MONTH

in 2019 to redress the unhealthy bias of the visual narrative in mainstream media that LGBTQ+ people look a certain way.

This project and its exhibitions are a superb way of raising awareness of the real diversity of LGBTQ+ communities across the city and wider UK, as well as supporting inclusion across the city. They also raise interesting questions around the media’s representations of LGBTQ+ communities, and how that can be challenged and changed using honest representation drawn from all intersecting groups that are experienced as part of LGBTQ+ lives.

The project was conceived in 2019 with the aim of redressing the visual narrative that LGBTQ+ people ‘look’ a certain way. Much of the imagery of the LGBTQ+ community played on stereotypes, clichés and, like much of mainstream media in general, body perfection.

After a successful Kickstarter fundraising campaign, and with the support of Ironworks Studios Brighton and the LGBTQ Workers’ Forum, award-winning photographer Chris Jepson has announced two exhibitions of The Identity Project for LGBTQ+ History Month.

The IDENTITY Project, which comes to Brighton’s Jubilee Library on Mon 6 – Sun 26 Feb and X Innovation Hub during late-Feb and March,is an exploration of what it means to identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community today.

After more than 20 years working for various LGBTQ+ media, the project was conceived

By exhibiting in public places, this collection of the diverse faces of the LGBTQ+ community aims to reduce stereotypes in the public perspective while giving young queer people and those from marginalised backgrounds role models to look up to.

Many of the participants have intersectional identities and experiences of marginalisation, for example, LGBTQ+ people of colour or LGBTQ+ people with disabilities, and many of the 90 are activists, who have fought for the inclusion and rights of LGBTQ+ people over the past 5 decades.

For more info, visit: www.theidentityproject.co.uk