The Exploit of the Imagination

Alice Himsworth Yoyo Zhang Hailey Cheng

Katie Roberts

by Sleepers

Flora Hannay Donna Gottschalk School ARTiculation Essay Prize

A RTICU L A T I O WINNER N ES S A Y Flora Hannah P

“SLEEPERS” R

SBY DONNA GOTTSCHALK I Z E 2 0 2 2

“Sleepers” illustrates a lesbian couple sleeping next to each other. Sunlight pours in through the window as they lie in a cheap rented room. There are stains on the wall, there is a dent through a portion of it. Part of a door is boarded up. Above their heads, a poster bearing the words “Lesbians Unite!” hangs on the wall. They are framed by light, captured in history. Alone, they are whoever they want to be. They aren’t the social outcasts who cannot marry, they aren’t the multitude of stereotypes around their existence. They can simply be themselves, in this space. Which is the beauty of this image. It captures these two ‘sleepers’, alone, yet comfortable in themselves. I was drawn to this image because of the calmness and intimacy of it, as it is not glaringly obvious who’s in the bed at first, so it draws the viewer to look around the scene and take in the setting. Especially as this culture is inundated with oversexualised images of lesbians, it is still relatively unusual to see photos of same-sex relationships

captured in this light. In some ways, looking at this piece feels to me invasive. We are invading upon a very personal moment of love, and you almost feel awkward looking at it. I think that it’s important to recognize that upon first viewing you do feel invasive. What I think it is important to remember is that that awkwardness doesn’t come because of their gender, it comes because of the intimacy of the moment. This would be the same if it were a woman and a man. A man and a man. This awkwardness is important to the piece, invading upon a moment that you instinctively know you are not meant to be a part of. It forces you to recognize this, to understand that you are not meant to be here. This moment is entirely their own. I think it is key to understand the huge contrast between Gottschalk’s work in depicting lesbians and how lesbians are actively presented in media today. These three images are all advertisements using queer relationships and sexuality to sell something. This commodifies queer relationships as it depicts these relationships as something that can be turned on and off. This is further enhanced because a ‘They are lot of the time the women being photographed are straight and are using lesbianism as a costume, which is not the reality for framed by actual queer people. These photos are also targeted towards a male consumer. Laura Mulvey wrote about the ‘Male Gaze’, light, captured (how women in the media are viewed through the eyes of the heterosexual man). This is problematic as advertisers are in history.’ essentially ‘selling’ this false, performed lesbianism to men through their marketing, which adds to the stigmatism that queer women often face, being seen as inherently very sexual. Comparing these images to Gottschalk’s really makes me question how it is that depictions of lesbians have gone so quickly from being completely hidden and erased to being commercialised and minimised to fit the male gaze. Donna Gottschalk’s photography is completely untainted by the male gaze, which seems, sadly, novel, in the world we live in. It shows

‘The two women… are the calm before the storm.’ The 1960s, 70s and 80s were 3 decades that are widely regarded as pivotal in LGBTQ+ History. Stonewall and the AIDS pandemic bookmark either side of this era in History, but where I am going to focus today is in a time between these two points. Donna Gottschalk was a lesbian photographer who was mainly active throughout the 60s and 70s. Until recently, she was only known through one photograph- An image of her at a pride march holding a sign saying, “I am your worst fear / I am your best fantasy.” In 2018, she revealed the rest of her work to the world, in an exhibition called “Brave, Beautiful Outlaws. Despite the hundreds of photos that she has taken documenting this time within history, she never considered herself a photographer. Many of her photos were taken when she was in her late teens and early twenties. The photograph I will be speaking on today was taken when Gottschalk was only 19.

to us how little representation of actual queer women there are in photography, when you take away the fetishization used in marketing today. These contrasting depictions make me question whether or not on we as a society have actually progressed over time or whether we have simply side-stepped into another form of oppression of the LGBTQ community. The fear that is so purposefully absent from Gottschalk’s photos still persists for LGBTQ Youth. This moment of solace in a decades long fight for some form of recognition is just that- a moment of solace. The poster above their heads represents everything that they are being forced to fight in order to have these moments. So much of identifying as queer is about fighting, when really this shouldn’t be about the fight. What I believe Gottschalk’s purpose was within this image was to show that fight shouldn’t have to be a part of identity. It shouldn’t be about fighting every moment of every day, only ever finding solace in sleep. Reflecting on Gottschalk’s ‘Sleeper’s’, I think it must be taken into account that even those who want to fight, who want to change the world, also want the quiet moments and the ability to freely be themselves. There must be an ‘after’, and not just the dream of a better place. The two women sleeping that were photographed were also activists, they also wanted to fight, but within that fight there is always a more primitive need to love and be loved. That, I believe, is the true meaning of this image and why I continue to think about so long after I first saw it. The protest is not more important than the quiet after it. The two women, sleepers, beneath their ‘Lesbian’s Unite’ protest banner, are the calm before the storm. Or perhaps the calm within it.