Anthony Luvera is an Australian artist, writer and educator based in London. Anthony collaborated with Queer in Brighton on our first commissioned project ‘Not Going Shopping’ to explore the lives of LGTBQ+ people in Brighton. Anthony invited eleven participants to meet him and bring photographs that told their story, and they were encouraged to consider what being queer means to them, and to photograph their experiences and the things they are interested in. The group met regularly to discuss their work and share photographs, and created self-portraits in a photo booth on the North Laine, which led to discussions about photography and identity. Anthony said of the project: “the prospect of creating this work seemed to me to offer a useful way to further my inquiry into participation and self-representation with groups of marginalized individuals, and at the same time provide an opportunity to confront my own views of queerness as a gay man… Images play a powerful role in the stories we tell about ourselves and the histories told about us. Not Going Shopping expresses the points of view of the participants and myself about what it is to be Queer in Brighton.” This collection of photographs were taken by SSarah Magdalena Love, one of the respondents to Anthony's open call for submissions. 1. This image depicts Sarah lying down in the grass with her hair covering her face. 2. This photograph depicts two people sat on a bench at the seafront staring at the sea, taken from behind the subject.

A collection of images from Siren's show 'Swamp'. 1. This shows a photo of Hilary Ramsden, Jude Winter and Jane Boston in ‘Swamp’. 2. This is a photo of Hilary Ramsden, Jane Boston and Jude Winter from ‘Swamp’.

A collection of images of Deb Trethewey performing with Siren as a band. 1. This shows the photo of Deb Trethewey that was used on the rear of the vinyl album, ‘Siren Plays’. Taken by Deb Shorrocks. 2. This shows a photo of Deb Trethewey playing in Siren band. Photographer unknown. 3. This shows a photo of Deb Trethewey in a recording studio recording for the album ‘Siren Plays’. Photographer unknown.

A collection of images of Jane Boston performing with Siren as a band. 1. This shows the photo of Jane Boston that was used on the rear of the vinyl album, ‘Siren Plays’. 2. This shows a photo of Jane Boston playing in Siren band.

This shows the postcard (front and back) used to promote Siren’s show ‘Les Les’. The postcard was used for the opening of the show at The Pavilion Theatre, Brighton. It shows Jude Winter and Jane Boston. They were the only Siren members who performed in the show. Deb Trethewey was still the technician at this time.

This shows Tash Fairbanks, Jude Winter, Jane Boston and Deb Trethewey about to have breakfast in a friend’s house after performing in London the previous night.

This shows one of the very early band gigs of Siren with Jude Winter and Jane Boston.

This shows Siren playing as a band, with Jude Winter on keyboards, Deb Trethewey on drums, Tash Fairbanks on sax and Jane Boston on guitar.

This shows Tash Fairbanks and Jane Boston warming up before a Siren band gig.

This shows a photo of Jude Winter and Jane Boston playing music from ‘Curfew’. They are both dressed in the costumes for the show.

This shoes Jude Winter and Tash Fairbanks playing in Siren band.

This shows Deb Trethewey, Tash Fairbanks, Jane Boston, Hilary Ramsden and Jude Winter with a friend, Susy Taylor in foreground of photo. Throughout Siren’s tours, they stayed at friend’s homes (or their parents) as we were not funded and could not afford B&Bs. This often meant sleeping in our sleeping bags on the floor.

This shows Jude, Tash and Deb in the van after a performance of Chic to Chic, still in costume.

This shows Tash Fairbanks, Jude Winter, Jane Boston and Deb Trethewey fooling around ‘queuing’ to get into the van.

A newspaper about Siren Theatre Company in the Brighton & Hove Gazette Newspaper in 1983 concerning the group receiving a loan of £2500 from Midland Bank to produce their album. The article inaccurately says Siren formed “eight months ago”, which would have been in 1982, but Siren actually started in 1979 and produced their first play (with music) in 1980. The article referred to the Midland Bank in Dyke Road as being ‘behind Brighton’s lesbian rock band’. The bank was actually not aware that it was lending money to a lesbian band, which in 1983 was not a trendy thing to do!