Archive / Journal

During the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, Vincent Cianni revisited over one hundred rolls of film from NYC Pride marches photographed between 1985 and 1995. For three months, he spent 6 to 8 hours a day, 5 to 6 days a week in the darkroom, editing and printing more than 140 photographs, many of which had never been printed before. The images documented Pride marches that took place during the height of another health crisis, the AIDS epidemic, the insidious and devastating disease that ravaged the LGBTQ+ community. The parallels between the two health crises became clear as news reports on the pandemic unfolded, revealing the same failures of government repeating themselves yet again. The marches also affirmed that healthcare, including treatment for people with HIV/AIDS, is a right. They demanded an end to the stigma and criminalization of HIV, as well as a more effective response from medical and government agencies and officials who fail to provide funding for research on medical treatment or offer legal, housing, and medical services to people with limited access. This demonstration of solidarity strengthened the sense of community and helped protect the rights earned from the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969 and the first NYC Pride March, also known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, which took place on June 28, 1970, one year after the Stonewall Rebellion.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Archive/Journal: 1985-1995/2001 is a two-volume title in a slipcase bringing together two related bodies of work: Volume 1, Archive 1985-1995, reproduces approximately 80 black-and-white photographs made of the NYC Pride marches during the height of the AIDS epidemic from 1985 to 1995. The photographs are accompanied by timelines, ephemera, newspaper articles, etc., and essays by Miss Rosen and Theodore Zinn, to expand the political, social, and historical understanding of the culture, activism, and milieu of the LGBTQ+ community. Volume 2: Journal: 1985-2001 focuses on personal narratives culled from Cianni's journals, and visual stories of lovers and friends who were living with or who died from AIDS, reflecting on his journey with HIV and his experience with activism surrounding HIV/AIDS from the same period as the Pride photographs. 

Vincent Cianni is a documentary photographer, educator, and activist who explores social justice through image, text, and audio. He was Adjunct Associate Professor at the Parsons School of Design for 30 years and the founder and director of the Newburgh Community Photo Project, a grassroots community photo workshop in Newburgh, NY. We Skate Hardcore was published by NYU Press and the Center for Documentary Studies in 2004, and a major survey was exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York in 2006. Gays in the Military (GITM)  was published by Daylight Books in May 2014 and was featured in the New York Times Sunday Review and The Katie Couric Show. He presented GITM at TEDxUniversityofNevada (2015) and The Archive for Documentary Arts (Duke University) established a study archive of his documentary photographs in 2007. Cianni’s photographs appear in numerous anthologies and online magazines, are exhibited nationally and internationally, and are represented in numerous public and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro; The Library of Congress; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; George Eastman House; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum of the City of New York, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer focusing on art, photography, and cultural history. Her work has been published in books by Janette Beckman, Joe Conzo, Martha Cooper, and Arlene Gottfried, as well as publications including The New Yorker, The Village Voice, i-D, Dazed, and AnOther. 

Theo Zinn (they/them) is a graduate of Drexel University (2025), with degrees in art history and photography. Their research focuses on contemporary art and the history of queer photography. As a photographer, Theo primarily shoots live concerts and theater performances, as well as BTS for film sets. Their personal work focuses on nightlife portraiture and Polaroid experimentation. Their senior thesis, WHOSGONNAFUSS: a non-binary portrait series, uses Polaroid emulsion lifts to visually explore feelings of gender dysphoria. Theo has a passion for queer representation and silliness in art, with hopes to continuously inspire others to create for the rest of their lives”