Amelia's Bar - Rack Productions. Digital print, the image measuring 356x279 mm; 14x11 inches, with Cohen's signature, title, and edition notation 27/50 in ink on verso. 1985; printed later.
Accompanied by Cohen's Certificate of Authenticity, also with her signature and edition notation, and her Artist Statement.
This photograph was made at activist Rikki Streicher's legendary San Francisco lesbian bar Amelia's on assignment for Rack Productions, who produced erotic events for the lesbian community in the late 1980s. It was published in the ground-breaking lesbian magazine On Our Backs. Cohen writes: Tina Turner "Addicted to Love" was vibrating in our bones and running through our veins and with a few drinks we lit up all of San Francisco with our queer selves."
Cohen's trailblazing work embraced both self-representation and portraiture as a means of exploring the eroticism, self-love, inclusivity, and acceptance of the community of queer women in and around San Francisco. Her radical work celebrates their sexuality, self-confidence, and open acceptance, while also documenting a period of immense cultural change. Wild and liberated, Cohen photographed the first ever Ms. Leather Contest, sex clubs during the feminist sex wars, the BDSM scene, Theatre Rhinoceros, AIDS fundraisers, the Gay Games, gay weddings, music festivals, and political activism.
