Lesbians of New York City

An On-going Documentary Project by Maddie Provost

  This project is inspired by my own relationship to the word lesbian. I always knew I was a lesbian, but struggled to come to terms with it. I first came out as bisexual, but after my first relationship with a woman, I realized my whole life had been a constructed value of male validation. Growing up, I had a singular, linear idea of what a lesbian looked like, and it wasn’t me. 

    As a photographer and a lesbian, I wanted to document the lesbian experience from individual voices; to show that lesbianism is not a porn category or a male fantasy, but a beautiful, special experience. I hope to exhibit that lesbians don’t need to look a certain way— that we can exist in whatever form we chose. I have found, that more and more people see lesbians, but view lesbianism as “hard,” as “bad,” as “dirty.” But, to me, lesbianism has never been “bad, ” it has been the exact opposite—a liberation to myself. 

      Lesbians of New York City is a compilation of portraits and video interviews of lesbians living in New York City as means of humanizing our experience—to exhibit the joy, love, and liberation that comes with lesbianism. Each individual will be presented with a series of the same questions, inquiring their notions of being a lesbian and how it relates to gender, their childhood, dating life, etc. While the project is heavily documentary based, I am not inclined to keep to the strict boundaries of documentary, as lesbianism is not a boundary, but a freedom. I want to make the images and videos visually aesthetic while keeping the word of the sitter. Each photo of the individual will include an overlay of a statement in their own handwriting, answering the question “what makes you happy?” I leave this question for each individual to capture their humanness and personality. My project is not only a social commentary and a means to my own exploration of lesbianism, but also as a means of healing; to reside the dirty feeling of the word and find beauty in it.