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Lola Flash

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Lola Flash
Born
Lola

1959 (age 64–65)
Montclair, New Jersey U.S.
EducationMaryland Institute College of Art
London College of Printing
Known forPhotography
Portraiture
Notable workhttps://www.instagram.com/flash9/
Websitelolaflash.com

Lola Flash[1] (born 1959)[2] is an American photographer whose work has often focused on social, LGBT and feminist issues.[2][3] An active participant in ACT UP during the time of the AIDS epidemic in New York City, Flash was notably featured in the 1989 "Kissing Doesn't Kill" poster.[1][4]

Early life and education

Flash born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey, is the daughter of two school teachers.[1][5] She is of African and Native American backgrounds and is the fourth generation on her mother's side to be from Montclair.[1][3] Her great grandfather Charles H. Bullock, as well as her great grandmother, taught at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.[6] Bullock also founded the first black YMCA in Montclair, as well as others in Brooklyn, Virginia, and Kentucky.[1] Her given name is in honor of her paternal great grandmother.[1]

Flash began taking pictures as a young girl, eventually doing student portraits for the high-school yearbook, as well as taking other pictures.[1]

Flash graduated from Montclair High School.[1] She received a B.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art, where she studied with Leslie King-Hammond.[1][7] Flash later received an M.A. from London College of Printing.[5]

Career

After attending the Maryland Institute College of Art, Flash used negatives and inverted color schemes in her photography. Her early work had a focus on social and political issues that included works related to the AIDS epidemic. Starting in the summer of 1987, Flash was very active in ACT UP in New York City until she moved to London and got her MFA.[1]

Flash was part of the Art Positive artist collective.[1]

Flash's next work was two photography series at Alice Yard in Woodbrook, Port of Spain: Scents of Autumn, The Quartet series.[8][9] During this time Flash also appeared in the Gran Fury collective's "Kissing Doesn't Kill" campaign, posters of which featured images of LGBT people kissing in an effort to destigmatize and educate about AIDS. The posters appeared on billboards and on the sides of buses.[10]

Flash's newer work has focused on issues such as how skin color impacts black identity and gender fluidity. She has frequently photographed members of the LGBT community, including a pride exhibit called LEGENDS that portrays members of the New York City LGBT community.[5]

In a recent project "SALT," Lola Flash focuses on women over the age of seventy who remain active in their field. Her subjects, who are portrayed in classical portrait-style photographs, are often unheralded women who range from artists and activists to real estate agents, singers and designers; however, some notable women, like Agnes Gund, were incorporated into the series.[11][12][13][14]

Flash's photography is featured in the 2009 book Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present.[15]

Flash's 2018 solo show, Lola Flash: 1986 – Present, is a 30-year retrospective, spanning three decades of influential works curated for exhibition at Pen + Brush in NYC. The show documents the beginnings of her work with her series about the AIDS crisis in New York City and extends through to the "critically lauded "SALT" and "[sur]passing" series."[16]

In 2019, under the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Artist in Residence Program, Flash noted "I've been a committed artist for 40 years, now having finally gained a seat at the table."[17]

Equipment and methodology

Flash began taking photographs using a Minox and then in high school she began shooting with a 35mm Yashica.[18][19]

Flash initially became known for using the cross-color technique of photography, which inverts colors.[4]

Flash currently uses a Toyo-view camera using the 4×5 film format.[18]

Personal life

Flash lives and works in New York City. In addition to photography, Flash teaches visual arts and English Language Arts at a high school in Brooklyn.[20]

Awards and honors

Selected exhibitions

Selected group exhibitions

  • 2016: Sur Rodney (Sur) with Art+ Positive members Lola Flash and Hunter Reynolds. Art AIDS America, The Bronx Museum of the Arts (Bronx, NY)

Selected solo exhibitions

  • 2018: Lola Flash: 1986 – Present, Pen + Brush (New York, NY)

Selected work

Filmography

Works and publications

  • Lichtenstein, Rachel; Flash, Lola (photography by) (2003). Keeping Pace: Older Women of the East End. London: The Women's Library. OCLC 428094803.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Flash, Lola; Shulman, Sarah (interviewer); Wentzy, James (interviewer) (July 8, 2008). "Interview 091: Lola Flash" (Oral history transcript). Act Up Oral History Project, A Program of The New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival. Harvard University. {{cite news}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ a b Cooper, Emmanuel (2006). "13.11: Lola Flash, AIDS Quilt – The First Year". The Sexual Perspective: Homosexuality and Art in the Last 100 Years in the West (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 317–318. ISBN 978-0-415-11100-3. OCLC 976447467.
  3. ^ a b c d "Lola Flash". Light Work. August 2008.
  4. ^ a b Manatakis, Lexi (January 25, 2018). "Lola Flash's photography immortalises queer, black New Yorkers". Dazed.
  5. ^ a b c Macey, Juliet (May 23, 2016). "Lights, Camera, Flash!". GO Magazine.
  6. ^ "Soundboard: Lola Flash" (Audio interview). WTJU. 2013.
  7. ^ "Lola Flash: (sur)passing". Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. June 2013.
  8. ^ Zimmerman, Bonnie; Haggerty, George, eds. (2000). Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures. New York: Garland. pp. 60–61. ISBN 978-0-815-33354-8. OCLC 848396108.
  9. ^ Lyndersay, Mark (August 7, 2015). "The Lola Flash portrait". Trinidad and Tobago Guardian.
  10. ^ Kalin, Tom (March 28, 2011). "MoMA: Nightclubbing". Museum of Modern Art.
  11. ^ Frank, Priscilla (May 4, 2015). "Photography Series Spotlighting Iconic Women Over 70 Proves The Best Is Yet To Come". Huffington Post.
  12. ^ "Photographer Lola Flash Focuses On Women Over 70". CulturePop. 2015.
  13. ^ "Performance and tour with Sur Rodney (Sur) with Art+ Positive members Lola Flash and Hunter Reynolds. Art AIDS America exhibition tour with Lola Flash". The Bronx Museum of the Arts. October 8, 2016.
  14. ^ a b "Lola Flash 2011". Art Matters Foundation. 2011.
  15. ^ Willis, Deborah (2009). Posing Beauty: African American Images, from the 1890s to the Present. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-06696-8. OCLC 310224903.
  16. ^ "Lola Flash: 1986-Present". Pen + Brush. 2018.
  17. ^ Turek, Anezka (May 2019). "60 Seconds with Lola Flash". Gender Watch: 10 – via ProQuest.
  18. ^ a b Mestrich, Qiana (January 22, 2009). "Photographer Interview: Lola Flash". Dodge & Burn: Decolonizing Photography History.
  19. ^ Osuji, Nono (2000). "This Woman's Work: Lola FLASH, a profile of her photography" (Video). This Woman's Work.
  20. ^ Twersky, Carolyn (January 25, 2018). "A Photographer Who Has Spent Decades Capturing Queer Culture". The Cut.
  21. ^ Laughlin, Nicholas (July 23, 2015). "Alice Yard: A conversation with Lola Flash". Alice Yard.
  22. ^ "Woodstock AIR Program". Artist in Residence: Woodstock. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
  23. ^ "Stay Afloat, Use a Rubber". Victoria and Albert Museum. 1993.

Further reading

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