Djuna Barnes

The subject of this regal portrait is Djuna Barnes, who is a staple of modernist and queer literary histories. She is especially celebrated for her poetry collection, The Book of Repulsive Women, her chronicle of lesbian life in Paris, Ladies Almanack, and her novel, Nightwood, which has become a lesbian cult classic.

The photographer Berenice Abbott was closeted and never publicly acknowledged her relationships with women. Writing to a friend in 1895, she emphasized the professional stakes of this decision, “I am a photographer, not a lesbian.” Nonetheless, she left behind an impressive body of portraiture documenting a community of lesbian intellectuals in 1920s Paris, including Djuna Barnes, Sylvia Beach, and many others. These portraits, taken in Abbott’s Paris studio, largely between 1926 and 1929, are intimate, sometimes humorous, and above all, dignified.