Through the Queer Lens: with Stuart 'LINDEN' Rhodes and Rachel Adams

Join us for an evening discussion called Through the Queer Lens where Stuart and Rachel will discuss photography’s role in building community and shaping culture and how they have captured these within their own practice.

📅 Thursday 26 February 2026

⏰ 6pm - 8pm

📍the Whitworth

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Photography has long been more than a tool for preserving a single moment. Cameras have often documented intimacy, resistance, and the diverse ways queer individuals have articulated their identities.

Join photographers Stuart ‘Linden’ Rhodes and Rachel Adams as they discuss their visual archives, revealing how images have served as powerful markers of both resilience and joy within LGBTQ+ communities.

Biographies.

Stuart Linden Rhodes, known as 'Linden', was a roving reporter and photographer for APN and Gay Times in the early to mid-1990s, documenting northern England’s queer scene through his column Out & About with Linden. A pseudonym protected his teaching career during the Clause 28 era. During the Covid lockdowns, he founded the Linden Archives, digitising thousands of 35mm images to preserve and share unseen photographs from the 1990s. His work captures queer nightlife, Pride, major cultural figures, and a community resilient amid AIDS and discrimination. Rhodes’ photography has featured on the BBC, in The Guardian, in UK exhibitions, and is held by Manchester City Art Gallery and The John Rylands Library.

Rachel Adams is a documentary and portrait photographer who works with sub-cultures internationally, capturing otherwise unseen aspects of life. She is particularly interested in documenting style, performance and cultural practice that remain neglected by the mainstream media, often placing personal stories at the heart of her work.

About the venue

The Whitworth is a venue with level access throughout, and facilities to support you during your visit. Alongside this our visitor team will be on hand to assist you in the gallery. Find out more about planning your visit to the Whitworth and accessibility information for you.

If you’d like to speak to a team member about any access or additional needs, please get in touch with the gallery and we will be happy to assist you. Email [email protected] or telephone 0161 275 7450.

The Whitworth art gallery and gardens is driven by a mission to work with communities to use art for positive social change, and actively addresses what matters most in people’s lives. We are proudly part of The University of Manchester, operating as a convening space between the University and the people of the city.

(Image Credit: © Rachel Adams 2021, untitled, from the series ‘A Deeper Love’)

(Image Credit: © Stuart Linden Rhodes, Manchester 1993)

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