Received this photo in the mail today. Our friends Barbara and Fran, posing in front of San Francisco City Hall. They came back to California, all the way from Lancaster PA, to get married.By the time the photo arrived, Proposition 8 had threatened their marriage, and those of the 18,000 other gay and lesbian newlyweds.
There's something striking about this photo. You'd never know it is a wedding portrait. It is, in fact, a threat to traditional wedding photography!
Here are two women who love each other very much, lived together for years, own a home, run a business, etc. Their wedding portrait couldn't be more mundane, or more subversive.
It isn't fantasy with big hair and too much makeup and expensive clothes no one will ever wear again. It's reality. Their reality. It avoids ALL the stereotypes of wedding photography. With no "role" to play, each is free to be themselves.
It suggests a boldness of thought, an independence of spirit, a "can-do" attitude. It's so fucking "American."
Some day it will be homobilia.
P.S. Really great piece in the NYTimes.
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2 comments:
Hi Barry,
I'm so pleased you read the photo as we intended it. I thought it also read as, "Damn lesbians... no fashion sense."
I have to say, the passage of Prop 8 broke my heart. I hate it that people have the audacity to vote on my humanity.
Lots of love to you Barry,
Babs
Yes, but the hetero marriage boat has sprung another leak. Gay Marriage Is Ruled Legal in Connecticut Eventually the bigots will either get the point, die off, or realize they need to focus on their marriages and get the fuck out of our lives.
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