Lola Flash

Lola Flash (born 1959) is an American photographer whose work focuses on social, LGBT and feminist issues. An active participant in ACT UP during the time of the AIDS epidemic in New York City, Flash was notably featured in the 1989 "Kissing Doesn't Kill" poster.

Flash's art, which is rooted in community advocacy, is in the permanent collections of (to name a few) the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of African American History and Culture, the Brooklyn Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Early life and education Flash was born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey by two school teachers. They are of African American and Native American backgrounds and is the fourth generation, on their mother's side, to grow up in Montclair. Bullock also founded the first Black YMCA in Montclair, as well as others in Brooklyn, Virginia, and Kentucky. In 1981, they received a B.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art, where they studied with Leslie King-Hammond. Flash later received an M.A. with Distinction from London College of Printing. Flash remained in London for twelve years, working for alternative lifestyle publications and teaching at Havering College.

Flash was part of the Art Positive artist collective.

Flash's newer work has focused on issues such as how skin color impacts black identity and gender fluidity. They have frequently photographed members of the LGBT community, including a series called LEGENDS which portrays iconic members of the New York City LGBT community.

Flash's photography is featured in the 2009 book Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present. Most recently a book entitled "Believable: Traveling with My Ancestors" their first monograph, was published by the New Press in 2023.

Flash's 2018 solo show, Lola Flash: 1986 – Present, is a 30-year retrospective, spanning three decades of influential works curated for exhibition at Pen + Brush in New York City. The show documents the beginnings of their work with the series about the AIDS crisis in New York City and extends through to the "critically lauded "SALT" and "[sur]passing" series."

In 2019, under the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Artist in Residence Program, Flash noted "I've been a committed artist for 40 years, now having finally gained a seat at the table."

In Flash's current Afrofuturist series, "syzygy, the vision," Flash transforms themself into an avatar "enduring to the horrors of racism, sexism and homophobia," and "experiencing moments of joy, envisioning a future where there is equity for all." Flash is a member of the Kamoige Collective and is the President of the board of Queer|Art.

Equipment and methodology Flash began taking photographs using a Minox and then in high school they began shooting with a 35mm Yashica.

Flash initially became known for using the cross-color technique of photography, which inverts colors. 2019: Woodstock, Artist residency (New York, NY) 2021: Flash was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society 2024: Flash received the Visual AIDS Vanguard Award 2024: Flash was granted a Pollock Krasner Foundation Award 2024 AIRIE residency, 2nd timer, Florida Everglades 2025: Flash was granted the Anonymous Was a Woman Award 2026: MacDowell residency, New Hampshire

Exhibitions Group exhibitions 2016: Sur Rodney (Sur) with Art+ Positive members Lola Flash and Hunter Reynolds. Art AIDS America, The Bronx Museum of the Arts (Bronx, NY) 2022: Picturing Black Girlhood: Moments of Possibility, Express Newark.

Solo exhibitions 2018: Lola Flash: 1986 – Present, Pen + Brush (New York, NY) 2025: Lola Flash: Believable - Jenkins Johnson Gallery, NYC 2026: Lola Flash: syzygy, the vision - Project Row Houses, Houston, TX 2026: Lola Flash: The Challenge: Survival + Visibility, Goucher College, MD

Collections Flash's work is held in the following permanent collection: 1993: Stay Afloat, Use a Rubber, Victoria and Albert Museum 2022: Cross Colour, Museum of Modern Art, New York 2022: Cross Colour, Whitney Museum, New York 2022: syzygy, the vision series (selections), National Museum of African American Museum of History and Culture, DC

Filmography 2014: Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People

Publications

Lola Flash. Believable: Traveling with My Ancestors. The New Press, (2023). With contributions by Renée Mussai, Jon Stryker, Jurek Wajdowicz.