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Holly Williams for Art-Sheep

Filmmaker and artist, Sébastien Lifshitz, had been going around markets and yard sales, skimming through family albums and forgotten attic boxes in search of old photos. But in his collection, published in Rizzoli and titled The Invisibles: Vintage Portraits of Love and Pride, the French artist does not include just any photos. His vintage discoveries are mementos of love and companionship, and most specifically, between homosexual couples.

Taken in an era when same-sex relationships were all the more treated with prejudice and marginalization, the photographs in Lifshitz’s series manage to make a bold statement about love and intimacy, despite era, society or sexual preference. The artist expains this point, characteristically saying about his “models” that“Because to obtain these images, they had to have gone to a small neighborhood photo lab to develop the film and then go back to pick up the prints. They, therefore, had to run the risk of exposing themselves socially. The need to keep a memory of their love was certainly stronger than the disapproval of some business or any concerns about what others might say.”

 

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