Bell Beecher Pitkin is a lesbian photographer, artist, and curator from Charlotte, North Carolina who lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts. Within their practice, Bell works primarily with medium format film photography, exploring the intersections of identity, desire, and imagination. Bell received their BA in Cinema and Media Studies with a concentration in Photography from Wellesley College in 2023.
They are currently working on a project inspired by the lesbian-feminist photographers of the 1970s-80s who sought to create images that resisted heteropatriarchal stereotypes of lesbianism and were authentic in their representation of queer bodies, sexuality, and community. Guided by the same politics, Bell makes images of the lesbians, dykes, t-boys, and queers they meet online, at bars, or through mutual friends. The project is deeply collaborative, grounded in trust and mutuality, and exists at the intersection of archiving, image-making, and community building.
Their work has been exhibited at the Light Factory (Charlotte, NC), Fort Point Arts Community and Panopticon Gallery (Boston, MA), and Gallery 14BC (New York, NY), among others.
Bell currently serves as the Gallery Manager for the Leica Boston Gallery and as a Curatorial Assistant & Board Member for Sinister Wisdom.
Exhibitions
2025 MatriART: Generations of Resistance | Mass NOW | Boston, MAQueer Conscience | The Image Flow Photography Center | San Anselmo, CA
TCF Spring 2025 Show | The Curated Fridge | Somerville, MA,
Whispering Shadows | Float Magazine | Virtual
2024 TCF Autumn 2024 Show | The Curated Fridge | Somerville, MA
Echoes of the Past | the Light Factory | Charlotte, NC
A Plea to Nine Muses | Behind VA Shadows | Cambridge, MA
Jewel Box: Exploring Queer Art | FPAC Assemblage Art Space | Boston, MA
Memory as Collage | Gallery 14BC | New York, NY
2023 Interlochen Faculty and Staff Exhibition | Dow Center for Visual Arts | Interlochen, MI
Remember A Place Not Here | Jewett Art Gallery | Wellesley, MA
Photographic Resource Center Student Show | Panopticon Gallery | Boston, MA
2022 A Possible Sum, A--Company | New York Fashion Week | New York, NY
Publications
2025 Lesbian Home Journal | Issue 3Uhual Magazine | ‘Brokestrap Mountain’, Mini Issue
Lesbos Zine | ‘Wet Hot Lesbian Summer’, Special Issue
2024 Femme Dyke Zine | ‘Love Letter’, Issue 3
The Eclectic Collective | ‘Dykes and Doobies’, Issue 2
2023 Femme Dyke Zine | ‘Diary of a Dyke’, Issue 2
2022 The Wellesley Review, Issue 29
Sinister Wisdom | ‘Glorious Defiance’, Issue 125
Pentimento Magazine | “Art in the Environment’
Neophyte Zine | ‘Hearts and Spades’, Issue 2
The Wellesley Review, Issue 28
2021 The Wellesley Review, Issue 27
Neophyte Zine, Issue 1
The Wellesley Review, Issue 26
2020 The Wellesley Review, Issue 25
Independent Curatorial Work
2025 Lesbian Generations: 1976-2026 | Design and curation for the 2026 Sinister Wisdom Calendar *50 Years of Lesbian Art | Co-curation with Juno Rosenhaus for Dyke+ArtHaus | Philadelphia, PA *
2024 Out Dykes, Outside | Design and art curation for the Sinister Wisdom 2025 Calendar
A Summer in Boston Through their Eyes | Writing and curation for the Trustees of Reservations
2023 Radical Creativity | Art curation for the Sinister Wisdom 2024 Calendar
* currently in progress