Cyna Mirzai

For hundreds of years, queer history has been hidden in plain sight, its artists casting their gazes in a myriad of ways, encoded in our constructs of beauty, desire, status, and wealth. Photography’s arrival in 1839 signalled a remarkable shift, placing the power of image-making in the hands of the people rather than the establishment. For those driven to create, visibility quickly became an act of resistance against misrepresentation, marginalisation, and erasure.

Hailing from south London, Krept & Konan first broke through in 2013 with their mixtape Young Kingz. They’ve since flourished into UK rap’s most successful, platinum-selling double act, offsetting combustible street anthems (‘Bloodclart’) and lusty club heaters (‘Freak Of The Week’) with raw, deeply personal writing on songs like ‘My Story’, ‘Last Letter To Cadet’ and ‘Broski’.

Dallas native Sharon Smith landed in New York during the winter of 1978, with dreams of becoming a photographer. “I was a bit lost and terribly naive, with no clue how to make a living,” says Smith. “It took me a while to figure that out.” During summer 1980, Smith happened upon a ‘help wanted’ advertisement in The Village Voice. The legendary nightclub, Copacabana, needed photographers to work high school proms.