Book Launch: Amos Badertscher Images and Stories

In celebration of the long-awaited first career survey from photographer Amos Badertscher, who comprehensively documented a uniquely American queer underworld, we invite Hunter O'Hanian, Brian Clamp, and Beth Saunders for a conversation on the recent publication of Amos Badertscher Images and Stories, moderated by Judy Giera, our Associate Director of Collections at LLMA.

Across several decades, self-taught photographer Amos Badertscher (1936–2023) made thousands of photographs of a liminal queer world: young male sex workers, drag performers, trans pioneers, and Baltimore, Maryland’s inclusive, ribald nightlife. The encounters with these marginalized figures helped Badertscher understand his own queer identity and reveal a confident body of work that stakes out an important corner of queer art and aesthetics.

Made between the 1960s and early 2000s, the photographs featured here constitute an unparalleled chronicle of a culture of the era particular not only to Badertscher’s hometown, but universally identifiable, one which began to fade with the movement of LGBTQ+ rights and liberation. The hundreds of images are accompanied by Badertscher’s writings about the history and experiences of his subjects, further illuminating the intimate inner lives of people who were frequently dismissed, feared, and objectified by mainstream culture. Amos Badertscher Images and Stories is a landmark introduction to a figure who is now finally receiving his due as a major twentieth-century portraitist and chronicler of queer subculture.

Books will be available for purchase at the Museum, or pre-order your copy here!

About Brian Clamp
Brian Paul Clamp is the owner and director of CLAMP, a gallery in Chelsea in New York City specializing in modern and contemporary art with an emphasis on photography. CLAMP mounts ten to fifteen exhibitions per year featuring the work of emerging and mid-career artists. Mr. Clamp opened the gallery in 2000 after completing a Master of Arts degree in Critical Studies in Modern Art at Columbia University. For eight years prior to that Mr. Clamp served as the director of a gallery on Manhattan’s Upper East Side specializing in late 19th- and early 20th-century American paintings. Aside from exhibitions at his own gallery space, Mr. Clamp has curated numerous photography shows at various venues throughout the United States, and has reviewed photographers’ portfolios at dozens of events over many years. Mr. Clamp is the author of many publications on American art to date, and also occasionally contributes written work to various art periodicals.

About Judy Giera

Judy Giera (she/her) is a New York City based artist and arts worker whose work with the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art has guided her interests as a non-academic queer art historian. Judy serves as the Associate Director of Collections for Leslie-Lohman and in this role she is charged with the care, stewardship, accessibility and growth of the museum’s 25,000+ objects across centuries of queer art and queer art history. Judy co-curated the museum’s 2024 exhibition ‘I’m A Thousand Different People, Everyone is Real’ and is working on a curatorial project on gay artist Saul Bolasni as well as is co-developing a traveling exhibition of the museum’s collection. As an artist her paintings, sculptures, and installations have been shown at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Hudson River Museum, haul gallery, Waterloo Arts Center, and the NARS Foundation, amongst others. She holds two masters degrees, one in theatre from Pace University and one in art from Lehman College and completed graduate coursework in Performance Studies with Pratt Institute. Giera resides in Brooklyn with her wife and two cats.

About Hunter O'Hanian
Hunter O’Hanian has a long career creating art and supporting visual arts and LGBTQ+ studies. He has held significant positions, including Executive Director of the Stonewall National Museum and Archive and the College Art Association. He was also the founding Director of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, and previously served as the Director of the Foundation for Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Additionally, he led two major artists’ residency programs, serving as President of Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Aspen, CO) and Director of the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA).

He graduated from Boston College and obtained his law degree from Suffolk University.

The author of numerous articles and essays, along with Robert W. Richards, is the co-editor of Stroke: From Under the Mattress to Out in the Open (Bruno Gmunder, 2015). His latest project is Amos Badertscher: Images and Stories (Phaidon, 2025)

About Beth Saunders
Beth Saunders is Curator and Head of Special Collections and Gallery at the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery, University of Maryland Baltimore County. A specialist in the history of photography, she received a PhD in Art History from the CUNY Graduate Center with a dissertation on nineteenth-century Italian photography. Her writing has appeared in edited volumes, exhibition catalogues, and journals, including CAA.Reviews, History of Photography, Photography and Culture, and Rivista di Studi di Fotografia. She is co-author of the exhibition catalogue Apollo's Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019.) Beth previously held positions in the department of photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and at Sotheby’s New York and has taught at Baruch College, RISD, and Rhode Island College. She curated the exhibition Lost Boys: Amos Badertscher’s Baltimore for UMBC’s Albin O. Kuhn Gallery in fall 2023.

Accessibility

Located at 26 Wooster Street, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art strives to provide a welcoming environment to all visitors. Five external steps lead to our entrance doors: a wheelchair lift is available. All galleries are wheelchair-accessible, and a single-occupancy accessible restroom is located behind the visitor services desk: all restrooms are gender-neutral. Large print didactics are available.

For questions or access requests, please email info@leslielohman.org with 1 week advance of your visit.