“Meet the Artist” with Morgan Gwenwald, in conversation with Ariel Goldberg (2025)

Video (1:27:49): Lesbian artist/photographer Morgan Gwenwald in conversation with Ariel Goldberg about her wide-ranging documentation of lesbian and queer grassroots organizing in New York City in the 1970s-1990s. Video by
The Center for Photography at Woodstock (2025)

Morgan Gwenwald

‘Morgan Gwenwald is one of a small group of Lesbian photographers who emerged during the early days of the gay rights movement. While in high school she talked her way into photography courses at the local university. By the time she left the BFA program she had a clear understanding that the world she wanted to portray was not welcome in the art world (nor in mainstream culture). This was an era when there were few “cross-over” artists and working professional lesbian photographers were usually not “out” and the small but growing group of out dyke photographers primarily published in their own community. In those years of a thriving women’s and queer press her art work was featured on many covers and her documentary work filled newsletters, journals and magazines throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. Her goal was to show the world in which she lived and the women who populated that world in personal and loving detail. Her move to New York in 1979 and long-term involvement in the Lesbian Herstory Archives opened the doors to a broader community. Early on she took up the challenge of portraying Lesbian sexuality in all its power and diversity. Her work was featured in the first and subsequent editions of On Our Backs. Her archive is an extensive documentary history of lesbians and queer activism in NYC.’

‘She exhibits her work locally and internationally including in Art After Stonewall, and Images On Which to Build: 1970s – 1990s and the Upstate Photography Biennial.’ – The Center for Photography at Woodstock

[The copyright of the video above remains with the original holder and it is used here for the purpose of education, comparison and criticism only.]

Related Link

Queer Bodies, Queer Communities: Photography and Belonging in Upstate New York