Tim Walker photographs the Gully Queens to raise money for Jamaica's LGBTQ+ community

Date
18 May 2018

Tim Walker has travelled to Jamaica with fashion journalist and stylist Kate Phelan to photograph Jamaica’s self-titled “Gully Queens” for British Vogue’s June issue. The Gully Queens named themselves after the drains on the outskirts of Kingston, an area where the homeless LGBTQ+ community has been forced to live in due to violent discrimination.

Tim Walker is now releasing 30 signed portraits and selling them with all proceeds going to The Gully Queens charity, The Larry Chang Centre, which helps house and support Jamaican LGBTQ+ living on the streets. In Tim Walker’s photographs the Gully Queens wear rainbow flags and hold rainbow fans as a sign of resilience against the ongoing prejudice and homophobic hate crimes. Over the past three years, the charity has received a number of small donations that has allowed it to provide short-term help and set up temporary shelter for the homeless LGBTQ+ community.

“I found the notion of an aggression towards homosexuality in Jamaica sad and regressive,” Tim Walker tells Vogue. “To me the Gully Queens are emblematic of this injustice which is what led me to photograph them. There is the chance, through photography, to give something that is very wrong in the world the visibility to make it right.”

The Gully Queen prints will be on display at London’s Michael Hoppen Gallery this week. For enquiries regarding the purchase of prints please email: gullyqueens@timwalkerphotography.com.

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About the Author

Daphne Milner

Daphne has worked for us for a few years now as a freelance writer. She covers everything from photography and graphic design to the ways in which artists are using AI.

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