Phyllis Christopher

Christopher was based in San Francisco from 1988, and was photo editor of ‘On Our Backs‘, a lesbian erotica magazine, from 1991-1994. During this time, she sensitively captured many gender expressions, moments of protest and moments of queer intimacy in the face of censorship and extreme homophobia at the time.

The show at Grand Union was an expansion and exploration of Christopher’s work, focusing on the ‘heads and tails’ of her published work. The show blurred the lines of her personal collection and commercial shooting, showcasing queer collectivity and joy.

In 2021, Christopher’s work was the subject of a major retrospective organised between BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, and Grand Union, Birmingham.

Accompanying this exhibition is the publication ‘Dark Room: San Francisco Sex and Protest, 1988–2003‘, produced by Book Works in October 2021. ‘Dark Room’ is the first book to spotlight Phyllis Christopher’s trailblazing photographs documenting lesbian erotic life and political struggle. Revealing a history that speaks to present queer feminist politics today, this book features an expertly handled edit of 100 images, alongside new writing by Laura Guy, Susie Bright, Michelle Tea, and an interview with Shar Rednour.

Phyllis Christopher is a photographer whose work documenting LGBTQ sexuality and protest in San Francisco has been published widely in anthologies such as ‘Nothing But The Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image’ (Susie Bright and Jill Posener, 1996), ‘Photo Sex: Fine Art Sexual Photography Comes of Age’ (David Steinberg, 2003), ‘Art & Queer Culture’ (Catherine Lord and Richard Meyer, 2013) as well as magazines such as DIVA, Aperture and Art Monthly.

Between 1991 and 1994 Christopher was the photo editor of the groundbreaking lesbian erotica magazine ‘On Our Backs’. She has featured on HBO’s ‘Sexbytes’, Canadian television’s ‘Sex TV’ and the documentary film, ‘Erotica – A Journey into Female Sexuality‘. Recently, her photographs have been included in various exhibitions including ‘On Our Backs: An Archive’ (The NewBridge Project, Newcastle, 2016) and ‘Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance’ (Nottingham Contemporary, De La Warr Pavilion and Arnolfini, Bristol, 2019). She is a 2020 finalist of the Queer|Art Robert Giard Grant for Emerging LGBTQ+ Photographers.