There are a few formatting issues, which I assume are due to the nature of the ARC, but wow—what a powerful journey into queer culture.

It’s all too easy to forget the sacrifices of those who came before us, the ones who paved the way for the queer culture we know today. This book captures that history beautifully, tracing the queer experience from the 1700s to the present day.

Through a queer lens, we’re treated to stunning photography paired with incredibly detailed and fascinating descriptions of time periods throughout.

In short, this is a breathtaking journey—one that moved me to tears more than once.

Well, if you thought that photography and the evolution of “the arts” was anything other than controversial, boundary-blurring, and meant to make you step outside of your comfort zone to see more of life, you may be shocked by this one. If you already knew that art by definition is meant to be thought-provoking, exposing, and even political, then you’re still going to learn something here.

This is an excellent timeline of proving just how LGBTQ+ people have always existed, are now, and will always be, world without end, amen. And yeah, I blasphemed a little there, and I wasn’t even holding a rosary. But it’s true. Legislating people into being a crime simply by living doesn’t change the fact that the beauty in life is captured within these pages. These are people who sought to find solace, maybe solidarity, and to uplift others who have long doubted their place in the world. They’re also people who wished to show the folks who vilify them that they aren’t the enemy. They’re just humans trying to live.

It’s a little sad, honestly. The timeline that is spelled out by decade, year, event, and upheavals is a reminder of how far we’ve come, but also how little time has passed and how disappointingly some people are determined to backslide into hate all over again. It’s still a book full of excellent information and some lessons in how to simply appreciate life, and I wish that more would take it for the truth of personalities that it clearly is.

A fascinating deep dive to queer photography since the invention of the camera, its impact on society and society's impact on it. It's a beautifully written book, with each chapter a different topic (and I appreciate very much having an entire chapter focused on Black queerness, also!).

My only note is that the photographs are oddly spread out throughout the book, very rarely appearing on the same page, or even in the same chapter, as the text that talks about it. I imagine this was a layouting challenge and I can understand how they'd come to the conclusion of putting a few pictures throughout and then just sort of spreading out the rest at the end of each chapter consecutively, but it made it hard to examine the photographs at the same time as the text; nevertheless, I'm not sure there's another solution.

(The photographs in the ARC version were highly pixellated, but I imagine that's because this is a pre-publication advance reader compressed version and I cannot imagine this problem will persist in a finalized version).

Thank you to Getty Publications and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such an emotional rollercoaster to read in the best way! Knowing our queer history is so important and we owe so much to those who came before us, who risked incarceration or worse just by being themselves and trying to build a better future for queer people. I teared up at several parts because the sheer bravery and courage of these people astounds me. Queer history is rarely brought up and it's so important, especially now, to know that there were queer people before us and there will be queer people after and its our duty to honour those before us by trying to build a better and more inclusive future for those who will come after. We will always be here. I will definitely be buying this in print once it's published. Thank you so much to the editors for their important work, it means a lot to me and other queer people.