In October, we celebrate LGBT History Month, but how much do we really know about this history? Truth is that the story and history of the LGBT community did not start with the Stonewall Riots, in June of 1969; nor with the murder of Matthew Shephard, in October of 1998.
As important issues as they may be, DADT, DOMA and the ongoing fight for marriage and other kinds of equality, these issues are not the only ones to define the LGBT community.
As contemporary artist and filmmaker Sebastien Lifshitz proves to us in his documentary, The Invisibles, the LGBT community has been around for many years, decades, and even centuries. To reiterate the message, his book, The Invisibles: Vintage Portraits of Love and Pride, offers a unique collection of photographs he picked up at flea markets, over a period of time. These images of gay couples and individuals from pre-Stonewall twentieth century (1900-1960)–a time when being gay or lesbian “meant belonging to a genealogy of suffering,” to a dramatic and even tragic destiny. These images shed light on the LGBT community and life at that time, through surprising stories, invisible until now.
Images of “the invisibles” offer a peek into the lives of their subjects and, with that, some of the intimate, tender, loving, and peaceful moments they shared secretly, in spite of the difficulties of the times in which they lived.
The Invisibles makes visible a vital part of LGBT history often left untold. It adds the missing pieces to complete the puzzle that defines the community we celebrate this month. It also helps us discover and understand an important chapter of the LGBT story, one definitely worth learning about this October, and any other time of the year.
Find out more at Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.at www.rizzoliusa.com/book.php?isbn=9780847843060
