Entrepreneur: Barbara Hammer

Barbara Hammer is primarily a cinematographer that focuses on making films that center around the LGBT community. Being part of the community herself, her films tend to concentrate on the lesbian portion by highlighting prominent lesbian artists. Over a 40 year span, she has created more than 80 films and has shown her art in various exhibitions. Due to this, she is considered to be a pioneer of queer media.

I would consider Barbara Hammer an entrepreneur because of the way she uses her art to bring to the forefront the stories and life of the people of the LGBT community, particularly concerning the queer women. Since most of these women lived during the times when being homosexual was extremely frowned upon and could cause dire consequences for the individual and their lovers, the women’s artistic talents have been shoved from the limelight and forgotten over time. Barbara, however, uses her art to bring forth these women in an act of empowerment for both being an independent woman and for being a lesbian. For instance, the film showed during the lecture, Welcome to this House, provides a documentary on the loves of Elizabeth Bishop, a poet who was also a closeted lesbian. This film, while mainly focusing on the many loves throughout Bishop’s life, also showcased who Bishop really was and how independent she was. Documenting the stories of the both lovers and Elizabeth through outside sources also gives insight to Elizabeth’s personality and how she lived during a time when being a homosexual was controversial.

I learned at the lecture that there are different ways to telling a story. While I didn’t connect on an intimate level with Barbara Hammer and her work, I was enlightened by the way she chose to make her film. She used various people who knew the subject, some who sounded like they saw Elizabeth through rose colored glasses and another who had mostly negative things to say. Though some would probably have edited the negative woman out, Barbara did not. To me, this made the subject appear more human rather than art and enabled me to realize that I should not be shy either on how I create my art. Using her film as an example, I will further explore adding vulnerability to my work and in essence making the subject or subjects more life like.