Lola Flash (born 1959) is an American

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

whose work has often focused on social,

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

issues. An active participant in

ACT UP AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, ...

during the time of the

AIDS epidemic The global epidemic of HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of 2021, HIV/AI ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Flash was notably featured in the 1989 "Kissing Doesn't Kill" poster. Flash's art, which is rooted in community advocacy, is in the permanent collections of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

and the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

Early life and education

Flash born and raised in

Montclair, New Jersey Montclair () is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a wealthy and diverse commuter town and suburb of New York City within the New York metropolitan area. As ...

, is the daughter of two school teachers. She is of African American and Native American backgrounds and is the fourth generation on her mother's side to grow up in Montclair. Her great-grandfather, Charles H. Bullock, as well as her great-grandmother, taught at the

Jefferson School African American Heritage Center The Jefferson School is a historic building in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was built to serve as a segregated high school for African-American students. The school, located on Commerce Street in the downtown Starr Hill neighborhood, was built ...

. Bullock also founded the first black

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

in Montclair, as well as others in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, and

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. Her given name is in honor of her paternal great-grandmother. Flash began taking pictures as a young girl, eventually doing student portraits for the high-school yearbook, as well as taking other pictures. Flash graduated from Montclair High School. After graduating, she went to college to study science and photography hoping to be a science photographer, but decided to transfer schools in order to focus on art. In 1981, she received a B.A. from

Maryland Institute College of Art The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a private art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the oldest art colleges in the U ...

, where she studied with

Leslie King-Hammond Leslie King-Hammond (born 1944) is an American artist, curator and art historian who is the Founding Director of the Center for Race and Culture at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she is also Graduate Dean Emeritus. Biography King- ...

. Flash later received an M.A. from

London College of Printing The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation, film, graphic design, photography and sound arts. It has approximately ...

Career

After attending the

, Flash used negatives and inverted color schemes in her photography. Unlike most

photojournalists Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

, she used slide film and developed her photographs on negative paper. This altered the colors in the photos, meant to show the viewer that they had been taught to view the world in a specific way. Her early work had a focus on

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

and political issues that included works related to the

. Starting in the summer of 1987, Flash was very active in

in New York City. In 1989, Flash and

Julie Tolentino Julie Tolentino is a visual and performance artist, dancer, and choreographer. Her work is influenced from an array of visual, archival, and movement strategies. Life Tolentino was born in San Francisco to a Filipino/Salvadoran family. She began ...

appeared with several other couples in Gran Fury's ""Kissing Doesn't Kill" PSA poster. This poster, which appeared on billboards, buses, and subway platforms in many cities, used the style of Benneton's United Colors campaign to call out bigotry and complacency regarding HIV/AIDS. In the 1990s, Flash moved to London and got her MFA from the London College of Printing. While there, she covered events for a gay publication. She also started exploring different themes through traditional portraiture. Flash remained in London for eight years, working for alternative lifestyle publications. Flash was part of the Art Positive

artist collective An artist collective is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything that is relevant to the need ...

. Flash's next work was two photography series at Alice Yard in

Woodbrook, Port of Spain The Woodbrook district, west of Downtown, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, was formerly a sugar estate owned by the Siegert family of Angostura bitters fame. The estate was sold to the Town Board in 1911 and developed into a residential neighbo ...

: Scents of Autumn, The Quartet series. During this time Flash also appeared in the

Gran Fury Emerging from ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in 1988, Gran Fury was an HIV/AIDS, AIDS activist artist collective from New York City consisting of 11 members including: Richard Elovich, Avram Finkelstein, Amy Heard, Tom Kalin, John Linde ...

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

billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

s and on the sides of buses. Flash's newer work has focused on issues such as how

skin color Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents and or individu ...

impacts black identity and

gender fluidity Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

. 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. 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 Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

real estate agents A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...

, singers and designers; however, some notable women, like

Agnes Gund Agnes Gund (born 1938) is an American philanthropist and arts patron, collector of modern and contemporary art, and arts education and social justice advocate. She is President Emerita and Life Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Chair ...

, were incorporated into the series. Flash's photography is featured in the 2009 book ''Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present.'' 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 New York City. The show documents the beginnings of her work with her series about the

AIDS crisis The AIDS epidemic, caused by HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), found its way to the United States between the 1970s and 1980s, but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexu ...

in New York City and extends through to the "critically lauded "SALT" and " urassing" series." 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." In Flash's current

Afrofuturist Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, and philosophy of science and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technocultu ...

series, "Syzygy, the vision," Flash transforms herself into an avatar "subjected to the horrors of racism, sexism and homophobia," and "experiencing moments of joy, envisioning a future where there is equity for all." Flash is a member of the Kamoige Collective and is on the board of Queer, Art.

Equipment and methodology

Flash began taking photographs using a

Minox Minox (pronounced ) is a manufacturer of cameras, known especially for its subminiature camera. The first product to carry the Minox name was a subminiature camera, conceived in 1922, and finally invented and produced in 1936, by Baltic German ...

and then in high school she began shooting with a 35mm

Yashica Yashica was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, originally active from 1949 until 2005 when its then-owner, Kyocera, ceased production. In 2008, the Yashica name reappeared on cameras produced by the Hong Kong-based MF Jebsen Group. In 2015, tr ...

. Flash initially became known for using the cross-color technique of photography, which inverts colors. Flash currently uses a Toyo-view camera using the 4×5 film format.

Personal life

Flash lives and works in New York City. In addition to photography, Flash teaches

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...

and English Language Arts at a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in Brooklyn.

Awards and honors

* 2008: Light Works,

Artist residency Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

(New York, NY) * 2011: Art Matters Foundation, grant for travel to England, Brazil & South Africa * 2015: Alice Yard,

(

) *2019: Woodstock, Artist residency (New York, NY) * 2021: Flash was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

Exhibitions

Group exhibitions

* 2016: Sur Rodney (Sur) with Art+ Positive members Lola Flash and

Hunter Reynolds Hunter Wayne Reynolds (July 30, 1959–June 12, 2022) was an American visual artist, and AIDS activist. He was known for his performance art and protest, and he was an early member of the AIDS activism group ACT UP. In 1989, he co-founded ART + ...

. ''Art AIDS America,'' The Bronx Museum of the Arts (Bronx, NY) * 2022: Picturing Black Girlhood: Moments of Possibility, Express Newark.

Solo exhibitions

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

Collections

Flash's work is held in the following permanent collection: * 1993: ''Stay Afloat, Use a Rubber,''

Filmography

* 2014: '' Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People''

Publications

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Flash, Lola 1959 births Living people 20th-century American women photographers 20th-century American photographers 21st-century American women photographers 21st-century American photographers American photographers African-American photographers American LGBT artists American LGBT photographers Maryland Institute College of Art alumni Montclair High School (New Jersey) alumni People from Montclair, New Jersey Photographers from New Jersey Photographers from New York City