Photographer Naima Green and Photo Director Toby Kaufmann just launched a Kickstarter to support this timely project.

In 1995, photographer Catherine Opie created the now legendary "Dyke Deck,” a 52 card (plus jokers) deck of playing cards illustrated with photographic studio portraits of Opie’s friends, each representing different members of the lesbian community.

Today, more than two decades later, photographer Naima Green and award-winning, former Refinery 29 Photo Director Toby Kaufmann have joined forces to launch reinterpret the deck with a broader, intersectional understanding of contemporary queer identity. The new, more inclusive deck, called Pur·suit, also acknowledges issues impacting the transgender community in the United States, and is complemented by a continuously updating website with more than 100 portraits, video and audio files that tell the stories of each participant.

Inspiring as it is, Pur·suit coming to fruition will depend on the success of its Kickstarter campaign. It’s a project we believe in so we spent some time with creators Naima Green and Toby Kauffman to learn more.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Naima Green and Toby Kaufmann

PostedJanuary 29, 2019

AuthorJon Feinstein

TagsNaima Green, Toby Kauffman, Dyke Deck, Catherine Opie, new photography, JD Samson, kickstarter photography projects, Kickstarter Photography Campaigns

© Christian Hendricks — © Christian Hendricks

In 2009, while still in college, Romke Hoogwaerts started Mossless, a thoughtfully produced, no-frills blog where he interviewed a new photographer every two days. By 2012, he was putting out books, and in 2013, while concurrently working as a New York City bicycle tour guide for the summer, began editing Mossless 3: The United States with Miriam Grace Leigh, a comprehensive photographic survey which landed itself on TIME, and unsurprisingly, Humble's best-of-2014 photobook lists. Hoogwaerts latest endeavor, Public, Private, Portrait, a collaboration with Charlotte Cotton and the International Center of Photography, is a portraiture focused parallel to ICP's upcoming launch exhibition of a similar name ("Public, Private, Secret"), with a glimpse into how the genre might address some of the blurry lines between these very issues. Working with editor Jonah Rosenberg and designer Elana Schlenker, it promises to be an immaculate publication, well worth funding through their current Kickckstarter campaign. We spoke with Hoogwaerts to get a better picture.

PostedApril 25, 2016

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesArtists, Publications

Tagsphotobooks, contemporary portraiture, Romke Hoogwaerts, Charlotte Cotton, New Photography, selfies, Kickstarter Photography Campaigns

Boise Idaho is home to a unique population of refugees from The Democratic Population of Congo, Iraq, Syria, Burma, Afghanistan, Somalia and Bhutan, and many other regions around the world. Since the 1970's, it's been a haven for many immigrant groups, largely because of its low cost of living, and also its high quality of life, and in 2015, Idaho was named one of the most welcoming states for accepting refugees in the entire United States. Many of these refugees barely escaped their home countries, and have gradually rebuilt their lives, contributing significantly to local and national economies despite a previous legacy of trauma and hardship. For more than a year, after receiving a grant from the City of Boise, Los Angeles based (but with deep Idahoan roots) editorial and commercial photographer Angie Smith has been photographing these communities to help tell their story and illuminate the broader refugee experience in the United States. We spoke with Smith to learn more about the project, which she's titled Stronger Shines The Light Inside, and her just-launched Kickstarter campaign which will raise funds to expand it.

A New Project Remakes Catherine Opie's Classic Dyke Deck With Photos of Contemporary Queerness

Public/Private/Portrait Might Be The Best Not-Yet-Published Photobook of 2016

Shedding Light On Refugee Experiences In The United States