Window through time: Vintage LGBTQ+ photos
You know the early years
of photography. If you wanted your portrait tak, you went to a studio. And actually it wasn't until, I believe the the Brownie Kodak camera came into popularity that amateur photography became popu. Nearly 2 trillion photos are taken every year. That's 5 billion a day,
57,000 a second. We record all the moments
of our lives. Not long ago, taking a photo was a more thoughtful process, especially for LGBTQ plus peopl. Robert Young, a librarian at Quinnipiac
University, has collected old photographs since he was a teen. Most of his collection is portraits of male couples. Began noticing in, you know, a number of my photos, you know. What we would, you know, say would be images showing affection between that, you know, somebody with his, someone with their arm around tr shoulders, snuggling up heads, heads touching, things like tha. So I became interested in that e of imagery and I started wonder, does this show LGBTQ history? About 50 photos in
Young's collection are of Roger Pegrum
and Frank Bouchon, a gay couple in the 1950s.
They're interesting because they capture a wide. Swath of their lives, you know, holidays, vacations, gathering with friends. There isn't a lot of intimacy or what we would probably consider intimacy in the photos. The photos had notes on the back with names and dates. Research led Young to eventually make connections with those still alive who knew them. I've spent about 12 years now researching the men's lives, their friends lives I've met. Family members, coworkers, people that knew them. The couple split up in 1959 but remained close that the photos kind of give us another view of the 50s. We kind of think of
the 50s as being, you know, suburbia, mom and dad, two kids and a dog, you know. But these photos provide a glimpse of gay life at that tim, which is quite rare. Young is working on a book about the couple in hopes their lives continue to impact others. But not all photos of gay coupls come with so many details. Young tells the story of a coupn Philadelphia whose wedding cerey photos from 1957 exist by Sherl.
They dropped the film off
at a camera store, and when the pictures
were developed, the owner of the camera store s, of course, what the subject
was and refused to give the photos back
to the couple. They said that the film
had been ruined. A woman who worked
in the camera shop kept the Prince, and when she d, her children inherited these photos and gave them to an archive in Southern California. The identity of the two men remains a mystery. While Young's collection focuses mostly on men, he acknowledges that there are others across the country focusg on lesbians and people of color that would have been our life. The documentary Real in the Clot explores home movies going
back to the 1940s. Of LGBTQ plus couples living thr lives during a repressive time. Whenever I share these photos, like on a Facebook group for LGQ history or vintage photos of of that are of interest to gay men, I get such a huge response. You know, from the community, you know, showing them, you kno, we we've always existed. We've been here. We've had lives. Carmen Chau Fox 61, Connecticut's news station.
