Lucy MacKenzie Howie

This project addresses photography, video, and film of 1980s-1990s Britain, to consider the intersecting but often overlooked histories of disability, sexuality, and the politics of representation. I am particularly interested in experimental lens-based works by women, queer and trans* artists who use citation, non-normative narrative, and fantasy to articulate a felt parallel with bodies culturally inscribed as queer and disabled. Bringing health to the forefront of discussions on lesbian feminist lens-based media, my project examines the challenge to documentary form in photography theory and locates where these debates were transformed to new ends in disability rights activism and in response to Section 28.

Through archival research, interviews and desk-based study, my project will reveal the intersectional approaches taken by artists between disability and lesbian identity, which is currently lacking from critical debates on historical lens-based media.