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Finding aid to the Shelby Sharie Cohen Photograph Portfolio
GLC 205
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Title: Shelby Sharie Cohen Photograph Portfolio
Date (inclusive): 1984-2016
Date (bulk): (bulk 1984-1988)
Identifier/Call Number: GLC 205
Creator:
Cohen, Shelby
Physical Description:
20 Photographic Prints
(11-inches x 14-inches)
Contributing Institution:
James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA, 94102
(415) 557-4400
info@sfpl.org
Abstract: This selection of twenty black-and-white images demonstrates the range of Cohen's work and illustrates the diversity of activities
and experiences of lesbians in the San Francisco Bay Area. The photos show a sex- and body-positivity that was influential
within the community as a result of her work's exposure through
On Our Backs, the
Bay Area Reporter and other publications. Cohen was one of the only photographers at the time who was also involved with the beginning of the
global lesbian leather movement that started in San Francisco in the 1980s and 1990s.
Physical Location: The collection is stored onsite.
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in
English.
The collection is open for research during Photo Desk hours: Tuesdays 1-5 pm, Thursdays 1-5 pm, and Saturdays 10-12 noon and
1-5 pm.
Copyright retained by Shelby Cohen. Fair use permitted.
[Identification of item], Shelby Sharie Cohen Photograph Portfolio (GLC 205), LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchase, 2019.
Shelby Sharie Cohen (nee Shari Cohen) was born on March 27, 1959. She is a self-described butch lesbian self-portrait artist
and photographer. Her work documents San Francisco's lesbian, BDSM, erotic and queer communities during the feminist sex wars
and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s.
She was one of the primary photographers for
On Our Backs: Entertainment for the Adventurous Lesbian, the first to feature lesbian erotica in the United States. Her work has also been published in the
Bay Area Reporter,
San Francisco Chronicle,
San Francisco Examiner,
The Sentinel,
Coming Up Newspaper,
East Bay Times, and others. Some of her work has been published under the names Shari Cohen, and Shelby Cohen. She has exhibited across
the country and her work has been sold through Swann Auction Galleries.
Cohen currently lives in Northern California and focuses on portrait photography and creating new Queer photography of the
present younger generation for galleries.
This selection of twenty black-and-white images demonstrates the range of Cohen's work and illustrates the diversity of activities
and experiences of lesbians in the San Francisco Bay Area. The photos also show a sex- and body-positivity that was influential
within the community as a result of her work's exposure through
On Our Backs, the
Bay Area Reporter and other publications.
Photographs include participants at the 1986 Gay Games in San Francisco, members of the lesbian motorcycle contingent Dykes
on Bikes at San Francisco Pride parades, portraits of women working, a photo shoot of lesbians for
On Our Backs, portraits of butch and femme lesbians, portraits of some famous people and their families, International Ms. Leather contestants,
and a performance portrait for FABLED ASP. There is also a self-portrait of Cohen with her pregnant lover, and a portrait
of Cohen taken 28 years later by Marie-Josee Mont-Reynaud.
The photographs are arranged in chronological order with descriptive notes provided by the photographer.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Lesbians -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area.
Parades -- California -- San Francisco.
Cohen, Shelby -- Archives