Sage Sohier, Linda & Nancy, Key West, 1988
Photographer Sage Sohier’s documentary-style black-and-white portraits of gay couples at home—relaxing in the tub, parenting young children, cuddling with pets on the couch—foreground the families’ tenderness and domesticity. In the mid-‘80s when the photos were taken, these qualities were at odds with the perception of most Americans, who thought about gay people though a filter of AIDS and promiscuity. Sohier met the couples in her series “At Home with Themselves” at gay bars and parades, or via advertisements she placed in gay newspapers while traveling around the U.S. The 21 photos on view are especially poignant when accompanied by the monograph Sohier published last fall, which includes interviews with the couples about their families, relationships and experiences in 1980s America.
Pictured: Sage Sohier: Linda & Nancy, Key West, 1988, pigment print, 15½ by 23 inches. Courtesy Foley Gallery, New York.