Destroying one's own four corners

Tihana Bertek

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"I am a photographer and not a lesbian" was the famous retort of Bernice Abbott in 1985 in a letter addressed to the artist Kaucyili Brooke, when asked whether her 1920s Parisian works of art reflected her sexual orientation. Abbott had, namely,
photographed female members of the intellectual and artistic circles of the time; lesbians like Djune Barnes, Thelme Wood, Janet Flanner, Jane Heap and others. From today's perspective it might perhaps be simple enough to judge Abbot's denial of her lesbian identity. However, the afore mentioned quote needs to be viewed in the light of her want to become recognised as a professional female photographer in a socio-artistic environment overall characterised by gender discrimination. Although she openly lived with her partner for 30 years, Abbott seemed to be "backing in" at the same time as lesbian identity and longing were slowly but constantly entering the sphere of the visible.
 

Photography had (and still has) a leading role in the representation and affirmation of LGBT lifestyles, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, at which time writers like Donna Gottschalk and Joan E. Biren (also known as JEB) were active. "Without visual identity we do not have community; we have no supporting network; we do not have a movement. Our visibility is a political act. Our visibility is a process of continuation“, were the words of JEB in an article entitled "Lesbian Photography – Seeing through Our Own Eyes“ written in 1983. Lesbian photography is born by community, for the community, and captures a critical attitude towards traditional photography that mostly relies in objectivising the female and showing a predator like relationship between the subject and object. Contrary to this, "lesbian photography, in which the female is the
muse, relies on cooperation and not domination. This cooperation develops into something mutual, common, an exchange of inspirational energy“, JEB explained. Such an approach is clearly visible in the photos themselves, as these portray every day, intimate life moments of Biren's friends, and it is obvious that they feel comfortable and uninhibited in front of her camera.

It is important to emphasize that queer art of that time was situated outside of mainstream culture. In presenting "The Dyke Show“- her mobile project - all over America, in order to reach as many people as possible, JEB never wanted to be limited by gallery walls or museums. "That reminds me all too much of a closet. One cannot build a movement inside a closet“, she said. Even the more significant lesbian exhibitions of the time, like "A Lesbian Show“ (New York, 1978 or "The Great American Lesbian Show“ (Los Angeles, 1980), were all organised on non-profit, alternative premises with connections to the LGBT community. The situation today is somewhat changed so that many large museums eagerly play host to artists of both genders and their works on queer themes as an expression of their prestige and enlightenment.
Contemporary Croatian art works with LGBT traits are almost solely found out of institutionalised context, with few and very shy exceptions, at that. A relatively short tradition of Croatian LGBT art and exhibition practices is as yet unexplored and
unresearched (in opposition to LGBT activism), but the photographer Ana Opalić is definitely one of the pioneers. Since the late 2000s, she has partaken in group exhibitions on LGBT themes (koliko queer posla, Galerija VN, 2007 – So much queer work), in campaigns for minority sexual rights (Različite ljubavi, jednaka prava, Kontra/Iskorak, 2009-Differnet love, same rights). She has exhibited her works within LGBT happenings (Izmišljeni putopis, Muzej prekinutih veza, L-fest 2011 - An imaginary travel account, Museum of Broken Relationships), and she has included portraits of LGBT people or same gender pairs in her exhibitions, which are not completely focused on this theme. Opalić has photographed members of her own family, friends, and acquaintances over the last 30 years, firstly in her town of birth, Dubrovnik, and later
on, ever in a wider scope. A part of this series was exhibited in 1997 at the annual Croatian Photo Association’s exhibition, where she received a prize as a young photographer. Nine years later, at the Zagreb based Josip Račić Studio she displayed her intimately intoned portraits of friends in their everyday environment, and amongst these were LGBT persons and pairs (e.g. "Dragica and Goga“). Lesbian themes also appear in a number of photographs in her series Self-portraits (e.g. Mare and I in a Quiet Corner), which was shown at the exhibition Patterns of Visibility at the Venetian
Biennale in 2003.

Intimate and everyday accounts – these photos convoke JEB and her book Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians, which summons everyday scenes of lesbian life. Nevertheless, even though LGBT themes in the works of Ana Opalić appeared sporadically and discretely (but continually), her series Martina (diary entries from 2009 – 2020), which contains portraits of her partner shot over a time frame of 11 years, explicitly represents an anthology of a (lesbian) love.

Many authors of both genders have concluded that time and personal experience of time are a key preoccupation in the works of Opalić. Independent of whether these be (self)portraits or landscapes. "There is something poignant in this appearing and disappearing“, the authoress herself explains.1 Fascinated by the lapse of time – always with sophisticated feeling for characterisation, using space and locality, Opalić registers changes not only on the exterior of those she portrays, but also in their mutual relationship. All this emerges unstoppably in her photographs. She takes pictures of
people who are important to her, at locations that are mutually significant for them. In this manner she confirms the idea - otherwise a key to feminist understanding of gender – that our environment forms our identities and life itself.

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1 Žmak, "Identiteti su pitanje kreativnosti," (interview with Ana Opalić). Vizkultura, 9.5.2018. The culmination of a close and unhindered relationship between the photographer and the photographed person is revealed in the series of Martina's portraits: The subtitle – diary entries – clearly communicates that we are dealing with something personal. Opalić takes photos of her partner in a household environment, on trips, in nature, and in the company of other people or by herself, in various moods. While early portraits of queer persons taken by Opalić were mainly politically implicit, the portraits of her
partner are explicitly intimate. Keeping in mind that we have long ago become aware that personal is political – thanks to the feminist movement – we can safely confirm that Ana's most personal series of photos is at the same time her most political work to date, because it places lesbian love in the area of visibility. In this sense we may say that her
contemporary artistic work - from atypical self-portraits in the outdoors of Dubrovnik, all marked with the trait of "concealing oneself in the surroundings“ – have led to setting one's own wishes in focus – in a certain sense this does reflect the artist’s process of outing/coming out. (?)

In comparison to Ana's most recent works, where locality played the same important role as the human being, in Martina’s portraits, the ambient has dwindled to a minimum: we are confronted mostly with large focus shots and there is almost no totality. "When taking photos, the most decisive element is the chemistry“, said Opalić in an interview. Can there be any greater chemistry than that of a pair in love, when all the barriers between model and photographer have disappeared? Independent whether Martina is indoors or outdoors, whether there is another person with her in the take (mother, child, or friend), what surfaces is the close and intimate relationship, not with the photographer, but with the audience. "Very personal and at the same time exposed to the widest array of public,“ wrote Sandra Križić Roban, "the documentary
photograph addresses the viewer.“ What is indeed obvious in the Diary Entries is that the gaze of the model is directed at the lens of the camera, and this was noted by Igor Zidić about some of Ana's earlier works, implying that "expressions are not frozen and a matter of surprise, but are in fact in agreement.“ In most of the photographs, Martina gazes directly at the camera: her gaze is one of self-awareness, moreover one of conspiracy; it draws us into their intimacy and invites us to partake of their relationship, for a brief moment. What is on hand here is the toppling of male domination gazing (remember JEB), which can be found in some of Ana's earlier works, and of which Rosana Ratković has written, indicating that Opalić demonstrates that the "all seeing objectivising stare is not the only type of stare.“ That is why we can say that the photograph does not happen in front of the camera, but mostly in the space between; in the intangible relationship between the photographer and model; the subject and object whose boundaries here have dissolved.

 

Tihana Bertek

Published in Fototxt – Ženski pogled, 4/2020, Galerija Spot