Spotlight Conversation: Judy Sisneros, east of Hollywood queer life documentarian (Part 2 of 2)

After two-plus decades of taking snaps of friends and queer art, performance and protest on the east side of LA, a lesbian activist-cum-photographer prepares to unveil her archives.

Jan 18, 2023

PART 2 (of 2). For part 1, see main articles page of Tell Me Everything.

Two marchers among the crowd at the 2006 Marcha Lesbica, Mexico City. Photo: © Judy Sisneros.

It was around the late 80s that Judy began taking photos regularly. An office manager at her first LA job sold her a Nikon FE camera for $150. She has since passed that classic camera on to one of her young cousins who is studying photography and film. She’d taken a photography class in college, but it was just a hobby. She used it to take pictures of her friends and all the fun. She was also using an instant camera. I didn’t get really serious about it until I got a Polaroid camera and started taking pictures of some of my friends in San Francisco. Sometimes they were intoxicated; sometimes they weren’t.

I’ve seen some of her early work. There’s a quality that reminds me of Nan Goldin’s Ballad of Sexual Dependency. The unposed hanging out, the bonding, the nightlife, the queer tribe feeling. Whenever I would visit Judy in her apartment in the aughts, I’d think about what’s inside her stacked boxes, all those people and nights, probably a lot of lost San Francisco now, eventually lost to AIDS and drugs and tech-era gentrification.

Judy was documenting the good times, the happy memories. But as the history of punk itself has shown, there was often a bad hangover that followed the party for many. Then it stopped being fun because so many people were getting strung out. I wasn’t strung out, but I was indulging. I was like, ‘okay, I have to get out of here.’

Her move to LA took a minute because she found druggy friends there too, and came back to San Francisco, only to realize the scene was really over for her. It was getting progressively worse, she says. Friendships were fraying; people were sick. She’d always held a job, valued being responsible. I just moved down here (LA) for good and stopped all that nonsense, she says.

Judy in action, Los Angeles CSW Parade, circa 1992. © Judy Sisneros personal archives.

During that time, San Francisco was experiencing the first devastating waves of AIDS, which led to chapters of ACT UP. In LA, she did pro-choice clinic defense then ACT UP became her new go-to home. She joined the women’s caucus, helped organize a national action, fought against AIDS-related homophobia in Hollywood. She was all-in and doing queer activism with Queer Nation too. She helped form Puss ‘N Boots, a 90s dyke visibility action group similar to the Lesbian Avengers in New York. She also co-founded the LA Dyke March and with the ACT UP National Women’s Caucus helped organize the larger Washington, DC, national dyke march that drew 20,000 lesbians, in collaboration with Avengers chapters across the US. Along the way, she built the close dyke friendship circle that she’s kept to this day. She also kept her day jobs all along, the ever-responsible punk.

I met Judy with a mutual friend, Kate Sorensen, who’d been in Act Up before moving to Philadelphia. The two of them were members of Large Marge, an all-dyke punk band named after the truck driver in Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure. Judy played the bass, an instrument she got about the time she got her Nikon. Her next dyke band, the Mudflap Girls, played at the LA dyke march a couple of times and at Al’s Bar, Spaceland and house parties. They’d changed the band’s name to Mudflap Girls in cheeky celebration of the diversity of sizes and shapes of the band members. We just thought, we’re gonna take that ideal of the mud flap and shake it…we’re gonna define it for ourselves. The band was a complete blast, Judy says. It’s so immediate and gratifying, Judy says of playing music with others, like sex on stage… like group sex when you’re playing and everyone’s, you know, all together. Or even if not together, but it sounds great. To this day, she remains a living room post-punk bass player.

At first, though, she wasn’t taking many pictures of ACT UP - LA. Several other people were photographing actions, but she was more focused on organizing, on fighting back hard. A few of her photographs were still used in the group’s newsletter.

Her approach to photography was about what her eye saw. She wasn’t into the tech side of the camera, the function, F-stops, all that. I had this aversion to the science… like I’d see all these numbers on the side and I’m like, ‘I can’t deal’. Now I feel really stupid because it’s super easy, but that held me back. She was also struggling to place herself as a photographer. She knew she wanted to take pictures of her friends, her circle. Am I a photojournalist? And I a street photographer? I was like, ‘where am I?’

Over time, as the contact sheets and boxes began filling up, she realized the answer. She cared about documenting her tribe, and those overlooked by the mainstream LGBTQ media eye. Queer culture coverage was centered on New York and San Francisco, and even West Hollywood, and focused on white, gay men, not punk dykes and trans performers doing wild performances in hole-in-the-wall clubs way east of La Brea.

Two marchers at the 2009 Somos Familia Marcha, East Los Angeles, anti-Proposition 8 march after CA voters passed an anti-gay marriage ballot proposition the previous November. Photo: © Judy Sisneros.

Judy joined the queer fun at the 90s Club Utero and Club Fuck. Ron Athey and Jenny Shimuzu, the lesbian model, danced onstage at Club Fuck, as did Steakhaus, who’s become a queer film producer. I saw all these people dancing basically topless, Judy reports, still delighted. Other dancers included Michelle Carr, co-owner of a popular all-ages club, Jabberjaw and founder of Velvet Hammer Burlesque. She’s known for having bested Courtney Love in a strip contest and was tapped by Jean Paul Gauthier to model his bullet bras.

Fast forward to the years just before Covid, when several friends had been encouraging Judy to pull together a show. She cut her teeth on a visual exhibition of LA dyke images and memorabilia, Lesbians to Watch Out For: ‘90s Queer LA Activism, co-curated with her pal, KPFK Feminist Magazine Radio co-cohost Lynn Ballen, held during Pride 2017 at Plummer Park. That show highlighted the activism of a number of lesbian groups in LA including Puss ‘N Boots. (It also included a side exhibit of the Avengers 25-year anniversary show).

Puss ‘N Boots’ slogan: ‘We’re out…on the street… and we’re unstoppable!’. Poster included in the Lesbians to Watch Out For: ‘90s Queer LA Activism show, Los Angeles, 2017.

That same year she discovered a new favorite queer Latinx punk hangout, the monthly Club Scum, cofounded in 2016 by a friend of hers, the queer nightlife impresario Rudy Bleu, with his club partner Ray (“Hex-Ray”) Sanchez, both east LA natives. They founded the club after growing tired of too-white queer spaces; it was a magnet for Latinx drag artists and bands. Club Scum took place at Club Chico in Montebello and expanded to offer pop-up Scum parties in San Francisco, New York and Mexico City. By now, Judy has a treasure trove of pictures devoted to Club Scum wild nights and creative debauchery. Sadly, the Club Scum party was cut short during the Covid epidemic, one of many LA bars that shut down in 2020, including the Latino gay Club Cobra in North Hollywood, an offshoot of Club Chico with a popular Thursday night party, Transfix.

Over the years, Judy’s been showing her work too, casually, but also, more formally. Her Instagram page presents photos of Club Scum fun and other clubs, queer art and political events. Or people she has her eye on, including younger trans creatives, and the new spaces where music she likes is happening. For Judy, sharing her discovery of new talent is part of the thrill. I feel there are so many people that aren’t being focused on that contribute to the community in such awesome ways.

She’s also excited by the attention she’s gotten from friends but also the queer art world, the curators keen to discover what’s being overlooked, who’s talented and deserves a spotlight. Pre-Covid, Judy was one of two artists who snagged a grant from Dirty Looks, a platform for queer film, video and performance founded in LA in 2011 by curator Bradford Nordeen. The other grantee was veteran performer Ron Athey. Covid shut everything down, so Judy used the grant to help pay her rent and plan the show. She’s gotten through the digital images, has the show lined up, about 100 photos that document activism, lifestyle and cultural events.

After Covid led to more delays, she kept busy with a pet project, producing a little photo zine of visitors to her Silver Lake house during quarantine.

On her career wish list is a show in New York, and San Francisco, and at least one in Europe, plus Mexico City. She’d also love to publish a book of her work. I’d love that too. In the meantime, she’s always open to new community, to new artists that catch her eye.

I can’t wait, I tell her about the coming Dirty Looks exhibit. She knows I think her work is a still-hidden gem, her queer tribe collection akin to well-known ones like Nan Goldin’s, even if she’s still early in her career, never had a big show. I’ve threatened to just come to LA and rent a space and show the work because of how strongly I feel about what she’s done, what she’s doing, which she cares about. She’s also got a great eye, which is what I think whenever I look at her Instagram feed. This matters, and I’m so glad she’s documenting it, I think. Sure, I’m hardly objective, but I know what I like. Judy’s photography, like her archival work for the ACT UP Oral History project, is a form of cultural activism, of reclaimed representation, and presents a lot of stories that matter to a lot of people.

I can’t wait, I repeat. It’s gonna be so great.

Jay outside of Queer Women in their Spaces exhibit at the New Puppy Gallery, Glassell Park, 2008. Photo: © Judy Sisneros.

Tell Me Everything

Spotlight Conversation: Judy Sisneros, east of Hollywood queer life documentarian (Part 2 of 2)

After two-plus decades of taking snaps of friends and queer art, performance and protest on the east side of LA, a lesbian activist-cum-photographer prepares to unveil her archives.

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