A Summer of Queer Creativity

Despite centuries of stigma, discrimination, and attempted erasure, queer artists have always found ways to thrive and create.

Embedded throughout art history are stories of queer joy—from vibrant portrayals of pre-Stonewall drag balls to intimate portraits by contemporary trans photographers. This summer, two new Getty exhibitions will honor the creative lives of LGBTQ+ artists and communities. $3 Bill: Evidence of Queer Lives, curated by Pietro Rigolo, explores queer activism and the significance of LGBTQ+ art through a mix of photographs, objects, and archival materials, highlighting both struggles and moments of beauty in queer existence. Similarly, Queer Lens: A History of Photography, curated by Paul Martineau, features more than 280 photographs tracing the expansive and arresting history of queer photography from the early 19th century to the present.

Over the last few years, Rigolo and Martineau have been preparing these two exhibitions to showcase Getty’s extensive collection of queer art and ephemera. This includes works by Robert Mapplethorpe, Laura Aguilar, Jess T. Dugan, Lola Flash, Duane Michals, Pierre et Giles, and many more.

Today’s political landscape makes these exhibitions even more timely.

“Especially since the last elections, we have been witnessing relentless and vile attacks on LGBTQ+ rights in the US, first and foremost aimed at the trans community, so showcasing queer art is more important than ever,” says Rigolo. While representation does not equal inclusion, museums hold significant social and political power and have the responsibility to support, display, and preserve trans and queer histories, he adds.

Both $3 Bill and Queer Lens celebrate over a century of LGBTQ+ art and activism, showcasing Getty’s queer archives while preserving stories of love, friendship, community, resistance, and resilience. Here’s a sampling of works from the shows and the curators’ candid takes on them.

$3 Bill: Evidence of Queer Lives

Front Line of Freedom San Francisco: Queer as a Three Dollar Bill

The exhibition title $3 Bill comes from this fictitious three-dollar banknote, distributed during Gay Pride in San Francisco in 1981. This piece of ephemera is from Getty’s Merrill C. Berman Collection of posters from social movements in the US, including LGBTQ+ and civil rights protests. “This piece and the show’s title come from this old slur, ‘queer as a three-dollar bill,’ a saying that’s not used anymore but can easily be understood from a contemporary perspective,” says Rigolo. “It’s a perfect example of a community reclaiming an insult with pride, and I think Bessie Smith and Harvey Milk represent such a beautiful image of an imagined multiracial, intergenerational allyship.”

Probably Finnie’s Club Halloween Ball Fun Makers Annual Ball

“Nothing in the exhibition proves that queer people have always existed—and thrived, while looking fabulous—more than the Johnson Publishing Company pictures,” says Rigolo. “The overlooked history of Chicago and New York’s pre-Stonewall drag balls reveals so much about desire, race, and class in America. I’ve spent hours with these photos, yet every time I see them, I can’t help but smile and tear up. The beauty, the fashion, the swag—it’s mind-blowing!”

Hair Bags

Harmony Hammond’s collection of small woven, knitted, and braided bags incorporates different women’s hair, symbolizing each individual’s importance to Hammond’s personal and artistic development.

“The bags were made using ancient crafts like knitting and braiding, art forms that were for a long time excluded from what was considered high art and thought of as ‘feminine,’” says Rigolo. “Dedicated to six women from a 1970s consciousness-raising group that Hammond was part of, the bags honor those who shaped the artist’s feminist and queer identity. In a way, they are homages to these women who were important to Hammond’s coming out as a lesbian. The bags represent a communal coming-of-age story.”

Queer Lens: A History of Photography

Diesel Jeans, Victory Day, 1945
(Photograph at the top of the post)

“David LaChapelle is a Maui-based photographer and filmmaker best known for his elaborate, kitschy fashion photographs and celebrity portraits,” says Martineau. “His work is significant for his use of subversive humor, particularly in his depictions of sexuality. Diesel Jeans, Victory Day, 1945, was created in San Francisco as part of a series of shock ads used to promote the denim brand. The advertisement appeared in a two-page spread in Spin in 1995 and generated controversy, as it was one of the first to depict two men kissing. The picture, which draws inspiration from Alfred Eisenstaedt’s famous photograph V-J Day in Times Square (1945) and Gran Fury’s ACT-UP poster Read My Lips (1988), subverts expectations by giving this so-called historical event a queer twist.”

Drag Queen Beauty Contest

Fred McDarrah was the first staff photographer at the Village Voice, a weekly alternative newspaper founded in 1955, and served there for 50 years. “McDarrah captured numerous cultural events, with his photography documenting pivotal moments in LGBTQ+ history,” says Martineau. “His images, including those of New York’s gay rights protests, were crucial in shaping public perception and legal changes for the community.” This work highlights the transformative role of photography in affirming LGBTQ+ identity, even in the face of resistance, suppression, and violence.

Thané

“Texas Isaiah is an African American visual storyteller who has received national recognition for his intimate portraits of the African American LGBTQ+ community,” says Martineau. “In 2020, they became the first trans person to shoot a cover for British Vogue. The artist’s highly collaborative creative process allows the sitter to become comfortable before the camera, which in the case of Thané resulted in an image of quiet serenity.”

Self-Portrait for Walt Whitman with Lilacs

John Dugdale is known for capturing serene, intimate still lifes and portraits of friends using 19th-century photographic techniques. The Victorian-era methods he employs include cyanotype, albumen silver, and platinum printing processes.

“Many of Dugdale’s sensitive portrayals of individuals and moments of stillness are in conversation with the work of queer literary figures such as Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman,” says Martineau. “In Self-Portrait for Walt Whitman with Lilacs, the artist, holding lilacs and reclining with closed eyes, references Whitman’s poem ‘When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,’ which mourns the death of President Lincoln.”

$3 Bill: Evidence of Queer Lives opens June 10 at the Getty Research Institute; Queer Lens: A History of Photography opens June 17 at the Getty Museum. Both shows close September 28, 2025.