Loving – Photographs of men in Love, 1850s to 1950s, A loving City – Queerberra Revisited, at Canberra Museum and Gallery until April 5. Reviewed by BRIAN ROPE.

Whilst complementary, these two exhibitions in adjoining spaces are very different.

Loving – Photographs of men in Love, 1850s to 1950s is, obviously, only about men. The photographs are essentially monochromatic. But walk through into the next space to A loving City – Queerberra Revisited and you immediately see colour images hung against a background of vivid rainbow colours.

The content of Loving was created by collectors and arts professionals Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell. They discovered an old photograph of two other men in love at an antique store in Texas, 25 years ago. That sparked a global journey searching for other such photographs. Guided by what they call “the unmistakable look” of love, they searched flea markets, auction houses, family albums and online collections gradually gathering more than 4000 images of male couples taken between 1850 and 1950, 100 years of the development of photography.

In 2020, they published a book showing hundreds of the photographs. It, and this exhibition, tenderly portray romantic love between men. There are snapshots, portraits, and group photos taken in most varied places and situations.

The collectors identified the photographed men as couples by what they describe as the unmistakable look of two people in love, by body language, and even by coded inscriptions.

There are diverse formats – ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, glass negatives, tin types, cabinet cards, photo postcards, and more.

Three years later, the collection was exhibited at the Musée Rath in Geneva. Now, it is being displayed in Australia, co-presented by CMAG and the Delegation of the European Union to Australia.

Digitised photographs share stories with considerable impact when we consider them. They speak to spirit and resilience. Loving  brings to light the lives and stories of male couples from around the world – giving voice to their courage, intimacy and enduring love for their “other halves”.

The second exhibition, A Loving City: Queerberra Revisited, is a return to the 2017 portrait series Queerberra by photographer Jane Duong and producer Victoria Firth-Smith.

Between 2015 and 2017, in the lead-up to Australia’s same-sex marriage postal vote, they captured more than 100 portraits of LGBTQIA+ Canberrans in their everyday spaces – in bedrooms, workplaces, and on the streets, portraits of pride, exhaustion, defiance, love, and hope were captured. Some subjects were already out. Others came out for the first time. This unique project set out to portray the beauty of Canberra’s rich array of Queer local identities.

Canberra’s voters delivered Australia’s strongest “Yes” supporting marriage equality. The Queerberra book was launched the next day. This revisiting of the exhibition provides an opportunity to consider how much things have changed since.

These exhibitions are, simultaneously, intensely intimate. Together they portray connection across generations, time periods and other things that often divide us.