Alice Austen’s Larky Life

The Alice Austen House is a Victorian Gothic cottage on the Staten Island waterfront, and on the summery fall day that I visited, the view over the harbor was bright and blue. Inside, the air smelled like salt water, which suited the current exhibition: “ She Sells Seashells ,” curated by Gemma Rolls-Bentley, an exploration of work by queer women artists who have found freedom and community at the seashore.

Alice Austen was a turn-of-the-twentieth-century photographer who spent most of her life on this particular piece of shoreline, first with her family and later with her partner, Gertrude Tate. An undated beach photograph of hers shows three women perched along the edge of the waves, exhilaration visible in their posture even as their faces are turned from the camera. Her work, which