To celebrate LGBT History month We’re Still Here! has commissioned Stuart Linden Rhodes to present a selection of archival photographic studies of 90’s LGBTQIA+ nightlife culture in Blackpool to coincide with the launch of the artists’ new publication. The selected images will be on display in on the forecourt of the Grundy Art Gallery as part of the gallery’s ongoing Forecourt Commissions programme.

Stuart Linden Rhodes is a photographer and journalist (APN and Gay Times Magazine) who captured and celebrated Northern queer nightlife in the early to mid 90s. Travelling the breadth of the country to hotspots such as Blackpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds and Liverpool, Stuart amassed an incredible collection of images and documentation of parties, protests and pride parades that shine a light on the tenacity, spirit and joy of LGBTQIA+ life in the North.

After sitting on these images for over 20 years, Stuart started scanning the negatives in the first lockdown of March 2020 and founded his now incredibly popular Instagram account, @linden_archives. Two years later and after features in Vice, BBC Radio 6 Music, Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo and a host of other major outlets, Stuart will soon release his first book, Out & About With Linden: A Queer Archive of the North.

All photos are taken in Blackpool between 1991- 1995.

 

 

We’re Still Here! is a project developed by artists Garth Gratrix and Harry Clayton-Wright and supported by Abingdon Studios through funding received by Heritage Lottery Fund.

This project will create a visual and oral histories archive of LGBTQIA+ communities in Blackpool. The project will collect individual and collective stories and explore ways in which these stories are shared and accessed. The project will look at how public collections, exhibitions and or other contemporary methods of display can showcase the rich and unique heritage of Blackpool’s LGBTQIA+ people.

 

We’re Still Here! is seeking members of the LGBTQIA+ community to contribute their stories to the archive. To find out more and to arrange an interview for the project, please go to: www.abingdonstudios.org/were-still-here