The Long Branch Arts & Cultural Center (LBACC) is holding Portraits of Pride, a month-long exhibit celebrating LGBTQ+ people from the community and local artists. The show is scheduled to run through July 1.
LBACC Arts Director Maggie Fischer said that over the past few years, Long Branch has formed a tradition of celebrating Pride in a unique way by bringing together members of the community.
“We’ve hosted panel discussions where members of the community shared personal stories and experiences, and I think hearing those conversations is what inspired this portrait exhibit,” Fischer said.
Fischer also highlighted local Long Branch photographer Andrea Phox, whose work is on the promotional flyer and is prominently featured in the show. Phox is not part of the LGBTQ community herself but felt inspired to showcase those who are in everyday life. She started taking the portraits in 2023.
“I decided that I wanted to take portraits of the gay people that I knew. And that I wanted the portraits to show that they’re just like [everyone else] … Unless it was in a Pride show, you wouldn’t know that they were [in the LGBTQ+ community], but it didn’t turn out that way,” Phox said.
Phox found that, despite her aiming to capture people as who they are, many of the portraits naturally began to reflect the sexuality or gender of her subjects.
“I have some like that [with more ambiguity in the subject’s identity],” Phox shared, “but many of the portraits really spoke to their sexualities.”
When asked if one of her goals was trying to capture the joy of people in doing what they love that’s unrelated to their identities, Phox replied, “Well, I mean, that is a lovely way to put it. But I think my goal was … just showing people, [being] who they are, [doing] what they love or what they do. And they happen to be gay.”
One of Phox’s subjects, a 33-year-old transgender man named Chayce Alston from Matawan, Monmouth County, said that when he was approached by Phox, he had been out for about two years at that point.
“As much as you want to pay homage to who you were, sometimes, it could be a little unnerving to pay very obvious respect to that,” Alston said. He added that the shoot took place before his top surgery. “When you’re earlier in your transition, for me, you know, the passing aspect was really important. So I did a lot of things at that time to appear more masculine, ’cause I just didn’t feel like, naturally, I sat right in that.”
The suit Alston is wearing in the photo was his first tailored post-transition suit. “I did feel very confident walking into that shoot, so I thought it definitely paid the perfect amount of homage to my growth. So I’m really happy that that’s the one that came out as well as it did. Honestly, I would do it again. If I had to recreate it, you know, tomorrow, I would do it the exact same way.”
Another photographer, 28-year-old Justin DeMattico from Old Bridge, Middlesex County, is featuring his cyanotypes at the LBACC. When asked why choose cyanotypes for this show, DeMattico said, “For me, there’s something really symbolic about that transformation. The process feels connected to ideas of self-discovery, vulnerability, and becoming comfortable being seen.”
Since a cyanotype makes use of the sun to develop the photos, DeMattico has to extend “a level of trust [to] the process because you never fully know how the final print is going to turn out. I think that unpredictability and gradual reveal are part of what makes cyanotype feel so emotionally connected to the themes of pride, visibility, and authenticity.”
Alongside photography, the exhibit features paintings from New York-based artist Greg Kessler, digital art prints by Stevie Cummings of Keyport, Monmouth County, paper collages by Nina Africano and others who have agreed to share more about their process.
Kessler has previously taken photos of or drawn transgender subjects in the ‘90s. Some of those drawings were his references for this show.
“A long time ago, in the ’90s, I used to draw transsexuals, in New York, mostly, like, in the West Village and whatnot. And that was my subject for quite a while. And I still, sort of, paint pieces like that once in a while, so one of those paintings called ‘Nicole’ is a gal that I knew way back then,” Kessler said.
The painting titled “Nicole” is one of the ones Kessler is showcasing at Portraits of Pride.
“I was just fascinated by androgyny in general,” Kessler said, “you know, in art, and mythology, things like that.”
Here Kessler is likely referring to shapeshifting gods like the Norse Loki or Hermaphroditus of Greek mythology where the word “hermaphrodite” comes from.
Cummings is an artist who started working with paint originally but now prefers to draw digitally. He is contributing three pieces to the LBACC. Cummings describes his work as figurative and inspired by surrealism.
“One thing that I like to focus on is LGBT life during the mid-century of the 20th century, before the Civil Rights Movement,” he said. “So a lot of the images that I show of people in their houses are like, you know, gay couples or like a lesbian couple, just kind of living their lives. Of course, probably closeted.”
Cummings is fascinated by the double life LGBTQ+ people lived when society was less accepting of them.
“Having a whole existence that their professional peers don’t know about, I always found that fascinating. Being able to be who you are, but society only allowing a certain part of your life on a daily basis to be [on display].”
One thing that is particularly eye-catching about one of Cummings’s pieces is the appearance of the Progress Pride flag. Unlike the six-color rainbow flag, the progress flag includes black and brown stripes for LGBTQ people of color and incorporates the transgender Pride flag into its design.
When asked about how he feels about the Progress Pride flag being a point of contention between generations of the LGBTQ+ community, Cummings says, “I’m 57 years old and there’s a lot of guys that are my age or older. Mostly a little bit older than me that are really resistant to not displaying the progress flag or the flag that includes like the transgender colors or issues of race and stuff like that. And I’m kind of like, I don’t know. It just seems old folk-ish.”
Cummings’ take is that “things just kind of naturally progress and transform, and I think the transgender community is being really, they’re attempting to really batter them down and erase them from society and stuff like that.” So, at least in Stevie Cummings’ work, the Progress Pride flag is here to stay.
The LBACC is located at 577 Broadway in Long Branch, Monmouth County. Visiting hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Longbranch.org/158/Arts-Cultural-Center
