{"id":4615,"date":"2015-10-09T08:07:10","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T14:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fatalemedia.com\/blog\/?p=4615"},"modified":"2015-10-08T14:48:40","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T20:48:40","slug":"in-memoriam-honey-lee-cottrell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fatalemedia.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/in-memoriam-honey-lee-cottrell\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam: Honey Lee Cottrell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cCoastbound<\/a>

\u201cCoastbound Train, Rachael and Elexis,\u201d 1985. Image by Honey Lee Cottrell. Among her well-known photographs is this powerful image of Rachael Williams (the first Ms. Leather) and Elexis that first appeared in On Our Backs.<\/p><\/div>\n

You may have known Honey Lee Cottrell<\/strong>. For sure you know her life\u2019s work as a photographer and cinematographer.<\/p>\n

Honey Lee Cottrell passed away on September 21, 2015, of pancreatic cancer. She was 69. We lost a friend and compatriot of Nan\u2019s from\u00a0 the early days of On Our Backs<\/em> and Fatale Video. She was one of the \u201ccore four\u201d at On Our Backs<\/em>, along with Nan, Deborah Sundahl and Susie Bright.<\/p>\n

Deborah Sundahl wrote of Honey Lee: \u201cThe most influential photographer of the 1980s and \u201990s in her innovative and original representation of lesbian sexuality. Her specialty was articulating the butch-femme of the 1950s for a new era of lesbians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honey Lee filmed Clips<\/a>,<\/em><\/strong> which featured \u201cthe first-ever-seen-on-screen authentic female ejaculation. Nan said, \u201cShe was right where she needed to be to get that shot, strong and steady to capture the event.\u201d What an historic event it was, too.<\/p>\n

Honey Lee was a force behind the scenes at Fatale and lesbian pornography. She chronicled the world of lesbian sexuality at On Our Backs<\/em>, Fatale Video and beyond. Her subjects were open and honest with her, gazing directly into the camera\u2019s lens.<\/p>\n

What writers and academics refer to as \u201cthe lesbian gaze<\/strong>,\u201d Honey Lee personified in her work. Her images were published in books and journals and shown in exhibitions and shows. Her work is archived at the Human Sexuality Collection at Cornell University. (Read the whole obituary, written by Brenda Marston of Cornell University, here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"Self<\/a>

Self portrait. 2009. Image by Honey Lee Cottrell<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

We\u2019ll let Honey Lee have the last word:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lesbian gaze meant that there was a contemplation<\/strong>,\u201d she said, \u201ca restraint, a sincerity and a warrior-quality. This lesbian look was compelling. While your heterosexual woman model might compel the rest of the world to look at her, a lesbian was addressing you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until next time,<\/p>\n

Nan & Christi
\nnan@fatalemedia.com
\nchristi@fatalemedia.com<\/p>\n

P.S. You can see Honey Lee\u2019s work in Clips<\/em><\/a> and some of her photos on Fatale Media\u2019s Pinterest boards<\/a>. Kitty Tsui, Honey Lee with tux and oar, as well as some others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may have known Honey Lee Cottrell. For sure you know her life\u2019s work as a photographer and cinematographer. Honey Lee Cottrell passed away on September 21, 2015, of pancreatic cancer. She was 69. We lost a friend and compatriot of Nan\u2019s from\u00a0 the early days of On Our Backs and Fatale Video. She was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,14,15,16],"tags":[38,383,309,56,311,308],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fatalemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4615"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fatalemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fatalemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fatalemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fatalemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4615"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.fatalemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4625,"href":"http:\/\/www.fatalemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4615\/revisions\/4625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fatalemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fatalemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fatalemedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}