Clifford Chance

Robert Giard (1939-2002) was an American photographer renowned for his portraits of LGBTQ+ writers, activists, and scholars. Over the last two decades of the 20th century, Giard created an extraordinary visual archive of over 600 individuals who shaped queer culture and history.

Giard, a self-taught portrait, landscape, and figure photographer, came relatively late in life to the practice of photography. A native of Hartford, Connecticut, he majored in English literature and received a B.A. from Yale University (1961). After completing an M.A. in comparative literature from Boston University (1965), he moved to New York and began to teach at the New Lincoln School.

Prompted by the growing AIDS crisis in 1985, he undertook to document LGBTQ+ writers and activists in a series of unadorned yet sometimes witty and playful portraits. Museums around the country collect his work. Giard’s complete archive, including workbooks and ephemera, can be found in the American Collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.

Photo Credits - Robert Giard by Tee Corinee, c. 1994.