Halifax woman who photographed 2SLGBTQ+, women's rights movements has work archived

Eric Smith flips through the pages in one of the many photo albums in his best friend's apartment in Halifax's west end.

He finds a photo of himself, taken decades earlier, with one of the first female members of the Nova Scotia Persons With AIDS Coalition. Looking at the black and white image, Smith thinks of the woman behind the camera — his friend, Anita Martinez.

Martinez, a professional photographer, died of lymphoma on Feb. 4 at the age of 85. Following her death, Smith said members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and women's rights activists came together to help preserve the tens of thousands of photos Martinez captured of those movements in Halifax from the 1980s onward: snapshots of early Pride Parades, Take Back the Night marches and personal portraits of members of marginalized communities.

"Her contribution has been huge," said Smith. "[For] over 40 years she basically photographed the history of the queer movement."

The Elderberries, an organization for 2SLGBTQ+ elders in Atlantic Canada, raised over $2,400 to repair Martinez's computer, recover over a dozen external drives, and back up the photos on them before they are archived at the Nova Scotia LGBT Seniors Archive, housed in Dalhousie University. 

Creighton Barrett, acquisitions and reference archivist at Dalhousie University Archives, said Martinez's collection is important because it "brings the past forward" and captures the fuller picture of what life looked like not long ago.

"The struggle for human rights and anti-discrimination, these are all still current battles that are happening today," he said. "And so you do see how far things have come, but also it's a reminder of how far we have to go."

Martinez moved to Halifax from the United States in 1983. Two years later, Martinez came out to her youngest daughter.

"She told me that she was in love with a woman," said Lori Anne Goldammer. "It didn't matter, male, female — just that somebody was kind to Mom."

Goldammer said her mother had lived at Bryony House, a shelter for women fleeing domestic abuse, for a period of her life. There, Martinez connected with the women's rights movement and started attending events against gender-based violence and gender inequality. 

With their permission, she started taking photographs of other residents. Later, when she became involved with AIDS activism, she took portraits of many young gay men with AIDS who were nearing the end of their lives. Many of those photos were hung on a wall at the Nova Scotia Persons With AIDS Coalition, now the Health Equity Alliance of Nova Scotia.

Smith said she did this as a way to preserve their legacy at a time where HIV/AIDS was heavily stigmatized. 

"A lot of them [had] been kicked out of their homes. They had basically no possessions. A lot of them came from rural areas," he said. "Anita was there with the camera, and it became really important for a lot of these guys to have a photo portfolio of themselves to leave to their friends."

When Daniel MacKay received a call from Martinez's daughter following her death, he went to Martinez's apartment and picked up her computer and 13 external drives, which amounted to over 20,000 gigabytes of content.

As secretary of the Elderberries, he sought community help for fundraising. The original goal was $1,200, but MacKay said they received over double that, showing how beloved Martinez was.

Once at home, MacKay started the process of sorting through the drives, which contain a mix of personal documents and photographs. While the process is painstaking, MacKay said it is worth it so that future generations can map out the history of the 2SLGBTQ+ and women's rights movements — and the woman behind the lens.

"Dozens or hundreds of years into the future, she will be remembered as the documentarian for the queer community in Halifax in the '80s and '90s," he said.

The next step is to get the community to help identify the photos. 

During Martinez's celebration of life on Feb. 22, photo albums were displayed and attendees were invited to add sticky notes next to the photos if they knew when they were taken or who is in them.

MacKay said he will continue to organize similar events and work with the community on the project.