Images on which to build, 1970s-1990s presents a range of photographic practices that used the medium as a tool for collectivity and empowerment within interconnected lesbian, trans, and queer grassroots organizing. This exhibition reveals the technologies through which influential image cultures were constructed and circulated. The exhibition presents a range of photographic practices to explore the process of learning within alternative schools, workshops, demonstrations, dance clubs, slideshow presentations, correspondences, and community-based archive projects.

Featured artists and collectives include: Diana Solís, Joan E. Biren (JEB), Lola Flash, the Lesbian Herstory Archives, ART+Positive and the Sexual Minorities Archives, among others. Images on which to build, 1970s-1990s is curated by Ariel Goldberg. The exhibition is co-organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY. The exhibition was originally presented as a FotoFocus exhibition on the occasion of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial: World Record September 30, 2022 – February 12, 2023.