Donna Gottschalk

Donna Gottschalk is an American photographer who was active in the 1970s and came out as lesbian around the time that Radicalesbians and the Furies Collective formed.

Gottschalk grew up in the Lower East side where her mother operated a beauty parlour since the 1950s. In the 1960s, she studied illustration at the High School of Art and Design. Through school, she met other lesbians who took her to iconic lesbian bars. She also became involved in the Gay Liberation Front.

She moved to California to join lesbian separatist communities. While in California, she worked as an artist's model, a topless bartender, and the driver of horse-drawn carriages.

Gottschalk was not aphotojournalist or a documentary photographer but has been taking photos since she was 17. Her work is shown for the first time in the exhibition BRAVE, BEAUTIFUL OUTLAWS: The Photographs of Donna Gottschalk curated byDeborah Bright at theLeslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art from August 29, 2018. Some of Gottschalks photographs have been published in the Gay Liberation Front newspaper. Her photos were in storage for 40 years. The subjects of Gottschalk's photos are her friends, family and roommates.

Photojournalist Diana Davies took a photo of Gottschalk at the 1970 Christopher Street Liberation Day parade that shows her holding a sign reading: "I am your worst fear I am your best fantasy".