Ines De Nil is a photographer and filmmaker who documented the queer autonomous scene in the late 1980s and 1990s. To date, only a fraction of her extensive body of work has been publicly exhibited. Her work operates at the intersection of documentary testimony and artistic photography. They offer insights into spaces of intimacy and self-expression that were, and remain, of central importance to the development of a visible queer culture.

Many of these spaces and individuals are scarcely documented today, whether for reasons of self-protection or because the events of that time were considered too obscure or niche. Amidst these events, Ines De Nil built genuine relationships with the people she photographed. Her work followed a simple principle: to show people as they wanted to be seen, which enabled her to depict immediate and unvarnished queer life.

The result is a body of photographs imbued with a sex- and body-positive visual language, characterised by a shared sense of community and mutual respect. None of the subjects appeared in disguise or in an alienated manner; rather, they exist in their own authenticity and beauty – visible and self-determined.