Steven Beckly is a Toronto-based artist working in photography, publications, sculpture and installation. In the series Reunions (2013) Beckly combines and recontextualizes photographs dating from between 1880 to 1980 from his own collection, queering these visual narratives of friendship, family and love. Expanding on personal histories and intimate realities, his work explores the complexities of relationships, intimacy, closeness and sexuality. Produced on newsprint, the images will slowly fade as the paper ages and yellows, suggesting the ephemeral nature of the relationships depicted in the photographs.
Beckly’s work is on view in the exhibitions Soft Movements in the Same Direction at The New Gallery in Calgary (to May 17) and Reunions as part of the 2014 Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival (at Toronto Image Works until May 31). Past exhibitions include Gallery 44 (Toronto), Art Metropole (Toronto), Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives (Toronto), Les Territoires (Montréal), Photo Center NW (Seattle) and Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (Philadelphia). He was also included in The Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward 2011 publication and exhibitions. He is currently an MFA Candidate at the University of Guelph.