I have been working on playing catch up over here. I spent my day off yesterday resting and recovering from my stuffy head. But I also had to do some work on the insulation in the garage so while I was down there putting my tools away I decided to clean a few totes of photos. That lead to me going upstairs and sorting more photos.
A friend of mine recently told me that I should probably find the original "Three Butches work in my basement" photo and make sure it is safe since it is such an important image. I kinda laughed it off but then thought of all the women, all the young butches, the lesbians and people of all ages who have viewed that photo.
I realized that many people found me through that photo and I have made so many connections, some were quick interactions and others resulted in long term friendships and life changing converstations.
I tried to figure a rough count on the views across the many platforms it has been shared on and I think it is possibly in the millions. I asked the three women to permission those many years ago before I posted it on tumblr and just wanted to share it because I loved the image of my friends so much. Turns out lots of others love it too.
I dug around and found the original. Now I am deciding if I put it in my safe, leave it in the scrap book where it is or seriously consider asking a lesbian archive to safe keep it for me as a lender to their collections.
I am not sure any traditional lesbian archive is going to understand what I am talking about in relation to this photo. But i know how much affect it has had and that makes me happy.