This Victorian-Era Photographer Quietly Defied Gender, Desire, and the Gaze

When it comes to documenting non-heteronormative individuals, several names come to mind. For instance, photographers such as Sunil Gupta, Nan Goldin, Dyanita Singh, and George Platt Lynes have often been at the forefront. However, while one often thanks them, we quietly overlook one individual who documented queer intimacy even before the word itself was recognized by society: Alice Austen. Here is a look at the life of the stalwart who radically challenged Victorian ideas of gender, propriety,...