We are very excited to be launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication of Phyllis Christopher’s Dark Room: San Francisco Sex and Protest, 1988-2003. Dark Room will bring together for the first time a rare collection of lesbian erotic and protest photographs, taken by Phyllis Christopher during a period of her life spent living in San Francisco. This explosive and tender body of work connects struggles for lesbian visibility, sex positivity and bodily autonomy to expressions of gender subversion and queer community. At the height of the AIDS crisis in the US, amid censorship and misinformation about sex in the mainstream, Christopher captured a countercultural insistence on the politics of pleasure – a community fighting for sexual and artistic freedoms in public and intimate settings. Revealing a history that speaks to queer feminist art and politics today, the book features an edit of over 80 images, alongside new writing by Laura Guy, Susie Bright, Michelle Tea, and an interview with Shar Rednour.

The fundraising campaign will launch on 23 February, but you can bookmark the pre-launch page now.

On 25 February Phyllis will be joined in conversation by Michelle Tea (moderated by Laura Guy) at the Printed Matter Virtual Book Fair (2pm GMT/7pm EST). Both the book fair and the event are free and open to all.