thelesbianlifestyle.com

Lesbian photographer Alix Smith is among 1143 artists being considered for a whopping $250,000 grant from Pepsi. For the last two years, Smith has been working on an award winning photography project/social action campaign that addresses inequality in civil rights – specifically, in the rights afforded to gay and lesbian individuals. Through gesture, color scheme, background and lighting, the photographs that comprise States of Union are loosely based on classical paintings. The goal of the project, which was exhibited at The Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York, and in Los Angeles at Manifest Equality, is to show LGBT youth – and indeed all Americans – that LGBT families, couples, and loves are no different than heterosexual ones and deserve the same love, support, and admiration.

Pepsi’s “refresh everything” campaign seeks to reward “people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact” and will change their community. Smith believes that encouraging positive identify formation in gay and lesbian youth by exposing them to images of familial love that they can relate to is critical to changing all American communities for the better. States of Union has been compared to the AIDS Quilt in its power to have a profound emotional affect on those that see it.

Voting for the winner of this grant began on April 1 and Smith’s project has already moved from 215th place to 76th, but in order to win she must move to 1st place. Supporters may vote daily for this project online at http://www.refresheverything.com/statesofunion

States of Union’s Photographer and Project Director, Alix Smith has been in solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, most notably recent exhibition at Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York. Smith is best known for her ability to create iconic images that defy cliche. Her images have a theatrical and painter-like quality reminiscent of great masters such as Vermeer, Manet and Sargent. Her work has been shown in exhibitions, art fairs and biennials in New York, Naples, Milan and Prague. She has been reviewed in a variety of publications some of which include The New York Times, Art Review, Artnet, and TimeOut New York. She was selected by Art Review Magazine as one of the best emerging photographers internationally. Smith shows with the Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York City, and has received fiscal sponsorship from The New York Foundation for the Arts, for her project “States of Union.” She was awarded a 2009 Stonewall Honor for States of Union by the Stonewall Foundation. She lives and works in New York.

IN THE LIFE is doing a segment on Alix Smith and States of Union. It is the second story in the “Dismantling Hate” episode. You can see it online at: http://www.inthelifetv.org/html/watchitl.shtml

To learn more about States of Union go to: www.statesofunion.com