This was such an emotional rollercoaster to read in the best way! Knowing our queer history is so important and we owe so much to those who came before us, who risked incarceration or worse just by being themselves and trying to build a better future for queer people. I teared up at several parts because the sheer bravery and courage of these people astounds me. Queer history is rarely brought up and it's so important, especially now, to know that there were queer people before us and there will be queer people after and its our duty to honour those before us by trying to build a better and more inclusive future for those who will come after. We will always be here. I will definitely be buying this in print once it's published. Thank you so much to the editors for their important work, it means a lot to me and other queer people.

A fascinating deep dive to queer photography since the invention of the camera, its impact on society and society's impact on it. It's a beautifully written book, with each chapter a different topic (and I appreciate very much having an entire chapter focused on Black queerness, also!).

My only note is that the photographs are oddly spread out throughout the book, very rarely appearing on the same page, or even in the same chapter, as the text that talks about it. I imagine this was a layouting challenge and I can understand how they'd come to the conclusion of putting a few pictures throughout and then just sort of spreading out the rest at the end of each chapter consecutively, but it made it hard to examine the photographs at the same time as the text; nevertheless, I'm not sure there's another solution.

(The photographs in the ARC version were highly pixellated, but I imagine that's because this is a pre-publication advance reader compressed version and I cannot imagine this problem will persist in a finalized version).

Thank you to Getty Publications and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Well, if you thought that photography and the evolution of “the arts” was anything other than controversial, boundary-blurring, and meant to make you step outside of your comfort zone to see more of life, you may be shocked by this one. If you already knew that art by definition is meant to be thought-provoking, exposing, and even political, then you’re still going to learn something here.

This is an excellent timeline of proving just how LGBTQ+ people have always existed, are now, and will always be, world without end, amen. And yeah, I blasphemed a little there, and I wasn’t even holding a rosary. But it’s true. Legislating people into being a crime simply by living doesn’t change the fact that the beauty in life is captured within these pages. These are people who sought to find solace, maybe solidarity, and to uplift others who have long doubted their place in the world. They’re also people who wished to show the folks who vilify them that they aren’t the enemy. They’re just humans trying to live.

It’s a little sad, honestly. The timeline that is spelled out by decade, year, event, and upheavals is a reminder of how far we’ve come, but also how little time has passed and how disappointingly some people are determined to backslide into hate all over again. It’s still a book full of excellent information and some lessons in how to simply appreciate life, and I wish that more would take it for the truth of personalities that it clearly is.

There are a few formatting issues, which I assume are due to the nature of the ARC, but wow—what a powerful journey into queer culture.

It’s all too easy to forget the sacrifices of those who came before us, the ones who paved the way for the queer culture we know today. This book captures that history beautifully, tracing the queer experience from the 1700s to the present day.

Through a queer lens, we’re treated to stunning photography paired with incredibly detailed and fascinating descriptions of time periods throughout.

In short, this is a breathtaking journey—one that moved me to tears more than once.

It’s a must read if you want to learn more about the queer community.

Queer Lens explores the force of photography and the role that has played in increasing queer visibility since it was invented. Essays and testimonials are explored through the history of the manifestations of queer culture and celebration of people resisting harsh times. It also included portraits of queer individuals, visual records of queer kinship, and documentary photographs of early queer groups and protests.

This is an excellent book to dive into queer history and how the community was always there and how they faced hardship. When I hear that queer people didn’t exist before 1900, I’ll show them this book. The timeline and the pictures prove that the community was always there, the solidarity always existed and will always be there no matters what governments do.
Each chapter as a different subject and it contains excellent and very detailed information on how each decade, year and events played a role in the queer community.

I loved reading about it and it felt very complete. There are things I didn’t know about and it’s was an amazing experience. It’s rare to see all the history and pictures all in a single book. I know there’s a lot of work behind it. It was very interesting to learn more about decades. I give it 5 stars because it’s not something I can judge. It’s not fiction and it’s not a story. It happened with real people. The book is well made, it flows easily and the research is very complete.

Really incredible overview and analysis of photography from the lens (hehe) of queer artists spanning from the mid 1800s to today. I don't know much about art history but this book made me want to learn more, especially about the work of queer artists of colour which the book points out have been marginalized over white queer photographers (not surprising).

Overall this book is worth the read and I learned a lot about our history. The only reason I am not giving 5 stars is because some of the essays in the book were super academic which is fine if it's that audience, but it would be nice if they were a bit more accessible to a broader audience. In particular, the chapter "Seeing the Overlooked" was the hardest to understand for me (and I have a graduate social science degree so am more familiar than the average person with academic writing). It's a super important chapter and some edits to pare down some of the extra wordiness would be helpful, as well as some brief definition of concepts (e.g. overdetermining, which was a term used frequently in the essay).

Thank you for the eARC - I'm certain that in print this book will be gorgeous!

A really beautiful, thorough exploration of lgbtq+ photography and the use of photography in public, private and political ways throughout time. The writing is deeply researched and enlightening. It’s emotional to see these photos across the ages and read about some triumphs and some regressions when you compare then to now…
It’s a beautiful mix of emotions and a great mix of photos from across time coupled with writing and essays that explore everything deeply.
I learnt a lot more than I expected to as it’s a topic I felt I was quite knowledgeable in already!
The images were quite pixelated on this arc but great nonetheless! I’m excited to see it out in the world and buy it as a physical copy!