Lola Flash

Flash born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey, is the daughter of two school teachers.[1][5] She is of African and Native American backgrounds and is the fourth generation on her mother's side to be from Montclair.[1][3] Her great grandfather Charles H. Bullock, as well as her great grandmother, taught at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.[6] Bullock also founded the first black YMCA in Montclair, as well as others in Brooklyn, Virginia, and Kentucky.[1] Her given name is in honor of her paternal great grandmother.[1]

Flash began taking pictures as a young girl, eventually doing student portraits for the high-school yearbook, as well as taking other pictures.[1]

Flash graduated from Montclair High School.[1] She received a B.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art, where she studied with Leslie King-Hammond.[1][7] Flash later received an M.A. from London College of Printing.[5]

After attending the Maryland Institute College of Art, Flash used negatives and inverted color schemes in her photography. Her early work had a focus on social and political issues that included works related to the AIDS epidemic. Starting in the summer of 1987, Flash was very active in ACT UP in New York City until she moved to London and got her MFA.[1]

Flash was part of the Art Positive artist collective.[1]

Flash's next work was two photography series at Alice Yard in Woodbrook, Port of Spain: Scents of Autumn, The Quartet series.[8][9] During this time Flash also appeared in the Gran Fury collective's "Kissing Doesn't Kill" campaign, posters of which featured images of LGBT people kissing in an effort to destigmatize and educate about AIDS. The posters appeared on billboards and on the sides of buses.[10]

Flash's newer work has focused on issues such as how skin color impacts black identity and gender fluidity. She has frequently photographed members of the LGBT community, including a pride exhibit called LEGENDS that portrays members of the New York City LGBT community.[5]

In a recent project "SALT," Lola Flash focuses on women over the age of seventy who remain active in their field. Her subjects, who are portrayed in classical portrait-style photographs, are often unheralded women who range from artists and activists to real estate agents, singers and designers; however, some notable women, like Agnes Gund, were incorporated into the series.[11][12][13][14]

Flash's photography is featured in the 2009 book Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present.[15]

Flash's 2018 solo show, Lola Flash: 1986 – Present, is a 30-year retrospective, spanning three decades of influential works curated for exhibition at Pen + Brush in NYC. The show documents the beginnings of her work with her series about the AIDS crisis in New York City and extends through to the "critically lauded "SALT" and "[sur]passing" series."[16]

In 2019, under the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Artist in Residence Program, Flash noted "I've been a committed artist for 40 years, now having finally gained a seat at the table."[17]

Flash began taking photographs using a Minox and then in high school she began shooting with a 35mm Yashica.[18][19]

Flash initially became known for using the cross-color technique of photography, which inverts colors.[4]

Flash currently uses a Toyo-view camera using the 4×5 film format.[18]

Flash lives and works in New York City. In addition to photography, Flash teaches visual arts and English Language Arts at a high school in Brooklyn.[20]

• 2008: Light Works, Artist residency (New York, NY)[3]
• 2011: Art Matters Foundation, grant for travel to England, Brazil & South Africa[14]
• 2015: Alice Yard, Artist residency (Woodbrook, Port of Spain)[21]
• 2019: Woodstock, Artist residency (New York, NY)[22]

• 1993: Stay Afloat, Use a Rubber, Victoria and Albert Museum[3][23]

• 2014: Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People

• Lichtenstein, Rachel; Flash, Lola (photography by) (2003). Keeping Pace: Older Women of the East End. London: The Women's Library. OCLC 428094803.

• Flash, Lola; Shulman, Sarah (interviewer); Wentzy, James (interviewer) (8 July 2008). "Interview 091: Lola Flash" (Oral history transcript). Act Up Oral History Project, A Program of The New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival. Harvard University.
• Willis, Deborah (2009). Posing Beauty: African American images, from the 1890s to the Present. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-06696-8. OCLC 310224903.
• Osuji, Nono (2000). "This Woman's Work: Lola FLASH, a profile of her photography" (Video). This Woman's Work.

• Official website
• Lola Flash at IMDb