Janet McAllister reviews A Queer Existence for Ingenio:
'It was a chance encounter a decade ago with the late, great art historian Professor Jonathan Mane-Wheoki that led physician-turned-photographer Mark Beehre to the Elam School of Fine Arts to undertake the project he’d been “percolating” for quite some time: an exploration of the lives of gay men born since the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986.
“Having encouragement from someone with such mana was a huge validation,” says Mark, of Jonathan, who was then Head of Elam.
Mark, who graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine in 1990, put his impostor’s syndrome aside, and enrolled to do a master of fine arts, graduating in 2014. His subsequent creative work is now published as A Queer Existence, The Lives of Young Gay Men in Aotearoa New Zealand. It features compelling photographs and interviews with gay men who never had to live in New Zealand when homosexuality was illegal.'
Read the full review here.
