Pushkin House hosts a talk by the legendary London-based queer photographer Christa Holka. Christa will trace the journey of their photographic work exploring identity and gender in Chicago to their current practice, nearly 20 years later, in London. What is the relationship between practice and performance? Is Christa’s practice, perhaps, a performance in itself? Christa will also touch upon a growing interest in examining the role identity plays in photographic practice, and consider whether a continued growing archive of queer life and performance could be a form of archival activism.

'Still Image from ‘TREMBLE’, a collaborative image performed by Liz Rosenfeld, photographed by Christa Holka. 'TREMBLE' is the first video work by Liz Rosenfeld in a trilogy about the action and experience of trembling. Shot on location at Ficken3000, Berlin, August 2020.'

Christa Holka is a queer portrait and performance photographer who has been photographing communities both intimate and extended for over 20 years. Based in London since 2007, Christa has been working in the UK’s publicly funded culture sector establishing a strong network of personal and professional community ties within London, the UK and internationally.

Christa’s work engages with and supports artists and organisations with portraiture and through portraiture, photographic documentation of performance, cultural heritage and arts activity by and for local communities, in galleries, museums, universities, schools and public venues in London and across the UK.

Christa is interested in documenting the everyday lives of people who wouldn’t ordinarily be documented, thereby facilitating an experience of feeling seen through a photographic process. The main motivation of Holka’s practice is to promote, elevate and showcase the communities, organisations, events, art, artists, writers and academics she photographs.

In all of their work, Christa creates spaces of care and comfort so that people feel at their best when working together. Christa works and communicates with a language of consent and comfort. Christa believes that approaching photography as a healing exchange between herself and her subjects yields the best result when the subject/s with whom Christa is collaborating feel empowered by the image they have created together.

Christa has an MA in Fine Art from Central St. Martins College of Art & Design, a BFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago and a BA in Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

The event is part of our current exhibition Desire International (until 12 Feb).