The lack of funding and opportunities in the arts is one of the key reasons we see a shortage of LGBTQIA+ representation in media and advertising. Breaking into photography as a career can be difficult, especially with the associated equipment costs and a need for experience.
Felix Pilgrim, a photographer hand-selected by GAY TIMES, travelled to Bath to capture the quaint local queer scene found in Daisy and Bean’s bakeshop. Keep reading to hear what Pilgrim had to say about his time photographing the owners and their tight-knit community.
“Molly and Em, the co-owners of Daisy and Bean, are doing incredible work creating a queer community in Bath. When I arrived, they were busy planning their next book club meeting which was focused on asexuality,” he explains.
Daisy and Bean’s bakeshop serves as an “important” queer space located in the South West for LGBTQIA+ people. Its friendly, welcoming nature and inclusion of the queer community is something that appealed to Pilgrim. In-house, the cafe uses a Somerset-based roastery – Girls Who Grind – who source their coffee from female cooperatives and coffee farmers. Elsewhere, on the till, the bakeshop displays a tips jar which funds gender-affirming care for chosen trans charities.
“The bakeshop is located on Gay Street so it felt more than appropriate to take a snap of the team underneath the street sign,” Pilgram recalls. “When I was at school ‘gay’ was always used as an insult, so it was nice to draw attention to the street sign and to basically have a gay old time underneath it!
“I hope the group portrait acts as a memento and as a celebration of the amazing work Daisy and Bean (and their team) are doing for the queer community in Bath and beyond.”
Pilgrim enjoyed photographing and interacting with Daisy and Bean’s wider queer-identifying employees. “I met a member of the team who helped design the interiors and who painted the beautiful mural featuring multicoloured waves and twisting lines which snake around the shop,” he says. “I also met Fin, who, as well as being the general manager has a background in illustration and is currently training to be a tattoo artist.”
Keep an eye out for more interviews spotlighting emerging LGBTQIA+ photographers in the coming weeks.
More
