Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

This book should be within the LGBTQIA+ collections of every library and home. Photobooks of LGBTQ persons are far and few in between. With this magnificent piece of art, I hope there will be many others. A beautiful collection that hopefully is not the last from this author or other photographers.

Absolutely gorgeous combination of photography and text! Every relationship depicted in this book feels nuanced, real, and vulnerable, and I really appreciated the opportunity to be welcomed into the most intimate parts of these couples' lives. My only critique is that I would have loved to see a stronger variety in ages, such as a few more elderly couples.

Holding Space: Life and Love Through a Queer Lens by Ryan Pfluger features 100 stunning color photographs of queer, interracial couples taken by a renowned photographer for the New York Times Magazine, Time, Rolling Stone, and more, this incredible photo and story collection depicts modern love and relationships in all their joy, vulnerability, and affection. Throughout 2020 and 2021, during a time of intense personal and political upheaval, artist, advocate, and photographer Ryan Pfluger set out to capture intimate images of queer, interracial couples, along with personal insight into their relationships in today’s world. Featured together for the first time in Holding Space, this unique collection of modern love in its many forms across the spectrum of race, sexuality, and gender identity and gives space to these couples to share short, revealing stories about their relationships.

Holding Space: Life and Love Through a Queer Lens is a wonderful collection of honest and frank interviews about the featured couples and their relationships and experiences. There is discussion on how they make their relationships work, and in some cases why they did not work out. But there is also discussion about the discriminations and challenges that come from society's expectations, bigotry, and the so much more. This is a great exploration of identity, diversity, and relationships that is accessible to anyone. It was lovely to get fresh and differing perspectives on the impact that family, race, gender identity and its fluid nature, and society can have on individuals and couples.

This was a picture and short story collection of interracial queer couples. I was excited for this when I requested it and it didn’t disappoint. I love things like this showing people existing, creating records of things that we sparingly get to see anywhere; queer people existing. There were couples still together, some that had broken up, het presenting couples. Each couple chose how to pose, what clothes to wear, and how much or little skin they showed making this collection feel extremely genuine and heartfelt. This book was limited to pairs of 2 I would have liked to see at least one poly relationship because there was so much inclusion of relationships in all their forms, but other then that I really enjoyed flipping through and seeing all the couples and how they chose to present themselves.

*a copy of this book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

A thoughtful look at the intersections of race and sexuality in queer interracial relationships told through couples' intimate personal stories. I appreciated that couples who have since broken up or amended their relationship were featured, fitting into the book's explorations of fluidity and queer dynamics. The photos were gorgeous, and I appreciate Pfluger's collaborative approach with subjects.

Beautiful. Queer love stories, queer loss, and everything in between. I appreciate this so much because it just shows queerness existing and people living as their authentic selves.

Stunning, well thought and wonderfully shot. Bravo.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5100857631

oh my god! This book is so good! It featured 100 photos stories of queer, interracial couples. Absolutely amazing. The entire time I was reading this I kept thinking how obvious everyone truly loved each other. Even the couples that broke up, you could tell there was something important they gained in the relationship. What I especially loved was that the people being photographed were in full control of how they were portrayed. Each couple chose how to pose, how much clothes to wear, what clothes to wear, the location the photo was taken, etc. They shared the stories from their own points of view rather than being described by someone who hasn't lived their experiences. It truly gave me hope and made me desperately want to fall in love. This book is about love for the people portrayed, the communities shown, and to the readers. I absolutely adored it.

An intimate, tender book I'd like to have on my shelf. The introductory essays are written by an impressive list of people--Janicza Bravo, Brandon Kyle Goodman, and of course, Ryan Plfuger. The couples portraits are paired with short bios, covering discussions of sexuality, race, and love in particular. I love that they're written from the perspective of the subjects themselves, and love the range of stories to be found. I recommend this for all to read and work through. Even if you decide to skip the written work, the portraits, which are the true stars of the show, are soft and stunning.

First up a big big thank you for allowing me to read this, however, I am sadly DNF-ing the book. I thought this would be just photographs (I was into a photography book) and well there is also text, lots of it. Which isn't bad, if I can actually read it. But the font is just too squinty for me on my PC (and no ADE doesn't really like me zooming in, that program just crashes if I try or lags so much that it takes me a long time to get through a page). Even with my glasses I just have a hard time and I am not about to get a headache/burning eyes for a book. I would absolutely LOVE to read this book though, so I am hoping that one day I find it in a library here, even though the libraries here favour Dutch over English books. But who knows, maybe it gets translated?
But I am giving it 4 stars because what I saw is what I loved. The photographs were honest, open, and beautiful. I love the couples. I love the settings. There were so many gorgeous photographs. And the text I tried to read was interesting and made me want to read more (if only the font was bigger).