Jessica Tanzer papers, 1963-2019
Collection Number: 7866

Proofs and excel file

Photographic prints, negatives, digital files, documents, correspondence, art work, news clippings, promotional materials, and ephemera documenting the art, life, and activism of photographer Jessica Tanzer, especially her contributions to the visual record of 1980s and 90s queer culture, aesthetics, erotica, and politics in northern California and nationally and to the magazine On Our Backs. The Papers represent the complete body of her work as a photographer of erotic and queer images from the 1980s to the present. Subsequent commercial and corporate work is not included.

A contributing photographer to On Our Backs, Jessica Tanzer created lesbian and bisexual erotic images during a formative period for this genre in San Francisco in the 1980s and 1990s. An active member of ACT UP, her images also document the energy and individuals of that movement. Her fine art images captured the bold, sex positive energy of the racially diverse, young queer activists over those decades. Cornell's Sexuality Collection used her iconic photographs "The Box" (1990) and "Caution" as the lead images for its 2014 exhibition "Speaking of Sex." Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, she has lived in San Francisco since the early 1980s. She attended San Francisco Art Institute, has exhibited in California, Washington, Ohio, and New York, and has been published in the U.S., UK, Holland, Finland, Germany, and Australia.

Access to black photograph album in Box 13 restricted to the permission of the curator. Personal files in Box 14 are restricted until 2065.

Cornell University Library will refer requests to reproduce, distribute, or produce derivatives of any images created by the artist and contained in this collection to the artist or her heirs.

Jessica Tanzer papers, #7866. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.

Related material to the photographer may be found in Box 5, Folder 17,Kissing Shoot by Jessica Tanzer", Page Hodel papers, #7912. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.