"Pink Portrait" Collection

This collection is a series of portraits of successful gay and lesbian professionals working in the film industry, by acclaimed photographer Donald MacLellan, in partnership with the UK Film Council.

 

The UK Film Council aims to increase and celebrate diversity in front of and behind the camera and encourage people from all communities to enjoy and access film. The collection records and celebrates the fantastic wealth of talent we have within the UK film industry. It also acts as a catalyst to explore, highlight and debate the on-screen representation of gay, lesbian and bisexual people and to establish to what extent they feel reflected in film, both in front of, and behind the camera.

 

The sitters photographed by Donald MacLellan for this collection include: Graham Broadbent, Simon Callow, Cameron McCracken, Terence Davies, Cinders Forshaw, Stephen Fry, Mark Gatiss, Christian Hodell, Phyllida Lloyd, Sean Mathias, Sir Ian McKellen, Chris New, Ian Iqbal Rashid, Berwyn Rowlands, Sir Antony Sher, Heather Peace, Duncan Kenworthy, Pratibha Parmar and Sophie Ward.

 

MacLellan is a celebrated portrait photographer, whose images have appeared regularly in national and international magazines over the past ten years. His subjects include leading figures in arts and entertainment such as: John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Benjamin Zephaniah and Ewan McGregor.

 

As part of this project, freelance researcher Sham Sandhu, has been compiling a series of interviews with the subjects in order to capture the views of those working in the film industry, particularly with regard to the on-screen representation and portrayal of gay and lesbian people and whether or not they have experienced any barriers during their careers.

 

The portraits formed the backdrop at a Stonewall lecture delivered by Ben Summerskill in December 2009 which looked at how attitudes have changed towards people in the film industry.  The intention is to exhibit the collection at a number of film festivals and industry events.

 

"Pink Portraits" is the working title for the photographs, so we invite you to send us your suggestions for re-naming the collection to diversity@ukfilmcouncil.org.uk, and welcome your feedback, views and comments on the portraits and the issues they raise. 

 

This collection is a ‘Leadership on Diversity’ initiative under the Equalities Charter for Film funded by the UK Film Council.