Donna Gottschalkâs âBrave, Beautiful Outlawsâ is opening at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art on Aug. 29. While Ms. Gottschalk doesnât identify as a documentary photographer or a photojournalist, she has been making pictures since she was 17. Photos selected from her 50-year personal archive will be made public for the first time.
Her work documents her closeness with her working class family and her involvement with the radical lesbian, sometimes separatist, communities in the late â60s and â70s.
The photos are tinged with mourning and mystery. Sheâs been holding their memory for decades, âfiercely protectiveâ and unwilling to âsubject them to scrutiny, judgment and abuseâ from the outside world.
âUnderstand, people didnât care about them or my pictures of them back in the day,â she said. âThese people were all very dear to me, and they were beautiful. These pictures are the only memorial some of these people will ever have.â
