Untitled from the Cross-Colour Series

Informed by their history of activism and her Black, queer identity, Lola Flash’s pathmaking, three-decade practice has shifted the possibilities of photographic representation. Entering the field at the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s, Flash wrestled with how to make marginalized figures and communities visible, highlighting their beauty while protecting their identity and agency as photographic subjects. In their foundational Cross-Colour series, made while the artist was living in London, Flash documented scenes of queer life in that city as well as in New York City, Fire Island, N.Y., and Provincetown, M.A., using an experimental process to print images as a negative or reversed color (for example, green is printed as red). The resulting images, equal parts magical and haunting, capture scenes of movement and nightlife, friendship, sex, repose, and protest, the latter marking the artist’s involvement as a core member of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) and co-founder of Art+Positive.