What's On

Getty and LA Pride Present: Queering the Lens

An LA Pride Salon Series evening of conversation and celebration

GETTY CENTER

Harold M. Williams Auditorium

This is a past event

The Queering the Lens panel discussion is SOLD OUT, but tickets are available for the celebration following the talk at 7:00 p.m. Click the "Get Tickets" button to join us and kick off LA Pride weekend.

Join us at the Getty Center for a kick-off celebration for LA Pride weekend.

Conversation
6:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.

Three Los Angeles-based photographers—Rick Castro, Amina Cruz, and Texas Isaiah—create powerful artwork that spotlights and celebrates under-represented LGBTQ+ communities. They discuss the varied subcultures and personal relationships explored in their work and reflect on how these subjects have forged their art practice.

This panel discussion has been organized by Rubén Esparza of Rubén Esparza Projects. Moderating the panel discussion is Tony Valenzuela, Executive Director of ONE Archives Foundation.

Celebration
7:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m.

Following the talk, join a celebration to kick-off LA Pride weekend in the courtyard of the Getty Museum. View the exhibition Tim Walker: Wonderful Things, enjoy complimentary bites, a hosted bar, and music by DJ Daisy O’Dell.


Rick Castro is a photographer, filmmaker, writer and a third-generation Los Angeleno. He shot his first image in 1986, and from then on immersed himself in homoerotic photography. In 1996 he co-wrote and directed Hustler White with Bruce LaBruce. Over the course of his career he has created portraits of Gore Vidal, Kenneth Anger, Ron Athey, Alice Bag, Peter Berlin, Michele Lamy and the 14th Dalai Lama. He has collaborated on fashion editorial for Christian Dior Homme, Cartier, and Rick Owens. His publications include Castro, published by Durk Dehner (D.P.R. Press,1990) and 13 Years of Bondage: The Photography of Rick Castro, Fluxion Editions (2004).

Amina Cruz was born and resides in Los Angeles. She hitchhiked around the country before deciding to move to New York City, where she earned her BFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design. She also holds a MFA from UCLA. Cruz's interests are based in queer culture, film/analog photography, and exploring the space between transformation and identity. Her current work explores transgression and the struggle and wonder of pushing past forced identities to be closer to self.

Texas Isaiah (He/They) has two first names and is an award-winning, first-generation visual narrator born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, who currently resides in Los Angeles. In 2020, Texas Isaiah became one of the first trans photographers to photograph a Vogue edition cover and a TIME cover and was artist in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem. His work has been shown at the Hammer Museum in LA, Saatchi Gallery in London, and at The Kitchen and Aperture gallery in New York.

Tony Valenzuela (moderator) is the executive director of ONE Archives Foundation, the oldest active LGBTQ+ organization in the country, dedicated to connecting queer history with contemporary culture to affect social change. Prior to joining ONE, Tony was executive director of the Foundation for The AIDS Monument (FAM), dedicated to installing a world class AIDS memorial in West Hollywood, and Lambda Literary, the nation’s premier queer literary arts organization.

Rubén Esparza (organizer) is a multidisciplinary artist and independent curator, using the insight of both roles to synergize intensely cross-referential physical and temporary works of art and exhibitions. Exploring Queer and Latinx histories, existential trauma, and the reconciliation of his heritage, that of the colonizer and the colonized, Esparza uses analog materials alongside complex, experimental, digital-driven works to create sociopolitical commentary or homage to brownness and or queerness. Esparza is the founder and director of the Queer Biennial and Queer Califas exhibitions.

Daisy O’Dell (DJ) is an award-winning music producer, filmmaker, and DJ, who has performed alongside artists as varied as Prince, Lady Gaga, and Fleetwood Mac. Cited by the New York Times as “one of the coolest people in Manhattan,” Daisy brings icon status to a steady stream of high-profile events and international club gigs. In addition to scoring for the Emmy® Award-winning PBS show Variety: Actors On Actors, she recently remixed an Elvis Presley and Backstreet Boys mashup for Baz Lurhmann’s Elvis Deluxe Soundtrack, music directed Elle's Women In Hollywood for the 14th consecutive year, released a debut single with her band Antiheroines, and headlined the Absolut tent at Coachella 2023.