Alice Austen and Gertrude Tate at Pickard’s Penny Photo, c.1901. Courtesy of the Alice Austen House.
Alice Austen in Mortimer Gardens
Part of Nailsworth Pride
📅 19 – 28 June
🎟️ Free
Alice Austen is widely regarded as one of the earliest known women photographers in the United States and one of the most significant LGBTQ+ figures in photographic history.
Her relationship
From around 1899, Austen shared her life with Gertrude Tate. The two women were together for more than 50 years, living and travelling as a couple at a time when same-sex relationships were rarely discussed publicly.
What makes her work queer?
Many of Austen’s photographs playfully challenge Victorian ideas about gender and propriety. She photographed women cross-dressing, smoking, posing as men, and enjoying freedoms that respectable society often frowned upon. While not overtly political statements, these images reveal alternative ways of living and performing identity.
Why does she matter today?
Alice’s photographs provide rare visual evidence of queer lives and relationships at the turn of the twentieth century. She helps demonstrate that LGBTQ+ history has always existed, even when people lacked the language or freedom to describe it openly.
