Being back in Sussex has gifted me the opportunity to rebuild my art network, a very exciting prospect that involves enjoying lots of local events. Most recently an evening at Helm where they were hosting an interview of Greg Bailey, providing a unique insight into his exhibition "Lavender Boy".
"Lavender Boy" shows work by brilliant photography Greg Bailey. Greg is Brighton based and has dedicated his career to photographic drag performers and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Combined with his magazine and co-hosted podcast Greg's work spotlights stars of the community and highlights emerging talents. The exhibition, running 1st Aug -1st Sept at Helm Gallery, is Greg's first solo show and brings together the archive of his collection and new works, all presenting the "culturally rich art form of drag; through beauty, queerness and riot of colour."
My biggest take away from the interview with Greg is actually the amazing advice he provided to aspiring artists. I am not convinced he is even aware of how valuable the advice he gave is.
One of the first questions was about Greg's process and how he got started. He told how his first instinct was to reach out to a drag performer that inspired him and how everything snowballed from there. His friendly demeanour was the first thing that struck me and this, plus bravery to try must have been the perfect combination for success. He talked of the passion to capture moments, tell stories and document history within the LGBTQ+ community. Greg has achieved so mush success just from a willingness to try, and there can't be a better lesson to aspiring artists than this.
In addition, Greg talked about how to maintain his creative practice. Another lesson in finding success. Greg discussed how he still keeps to a low budget, visiting his subjects where needed to fit their availability or utilising what is naturally around to build his collection. Within this, the importance of building a connection with his models, staying playfully, and keeping spirits lifted. I observed in my notes that Greg had a "beautiful energy" that I could imagine must be joyful to work with. Through my own limited experience photographing muses as part of my "I am..." collection I also found it to be crucial to create a calm, comfortable environment to achieve the best image. To capture a glimpse of the muses heart and soul. For Greg this also means performing the important task of being a documentary of history.
"don't assume anything, build repour and then expand"
As all LGBTQ+ folks can attest there is a huge gap in accessing queer history. Something that is slowly being rectified through resources like "Everything is Queer" map and "Queer Britain" museum. But the community still faces constant challenges, persecutions and limits to the education resources to access our own history. Greg remains humble about the significance of his collection but it seemed impossible not to recognise the historic nature of Greg's work and the power it holds for the queer community.
To end the evening Greg talked of his future to expand the subject matter of his collection to include more members of the LGBTQ+ community and his dream of photographing Ian McKellen. Greg's natural charm presents a humble insight to such an extravagant, vibrant collection of work, but he doesn't seem ignorant of the platform he now sits upon. Balancing focus, logistics planning and realistic goal setting he has been able to build a collection that captures historic places and queer experiences. Leaving us with one last nugget of gold advice; "don't assume anything, build repour and then expand". Greg is a perfect example of how kindness really can open doors. There isn't mush better advice than that for how to succeed in a creative working environment. We are often taught and encouraged to live by the opposite standard but Greg and his work is challenging the status quo on so many levels.
Make sure to visit Helm before the show ends and follow Greg Bailey to see more.
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