Dyke Diaries: Lesbians of New York City (2021-)

An On-going Documentary Project by Maddie Provost

Notes as of 2025: When first approaching this project nearly three years ago, I was in the midst of reconciling with my identity as a lesbian within an unfamiliar terrain of a world I was beginning to inhabit. Each interview felt like opening a book into an unlived life— an unraveling of my own self-conception. Etched in my mind was an all-encompassing archetype of what a dyke looked like—an image I could never quite step into. However, from working in conversation with other lesbians of various ages, I realized I was questioning myself just as much as them—exploring the ways I was being perceived, but also, how I wanted to live my life and in, perhaps, a different body. Now, in reckoning with my gender identity, I find myself returning to the word ‘lesbian’—not as a fixed point, but as something that has shifted and grown alongside me

Within this project, I document the lesbian experience through individual voices, using the body itself as a living archive. My time at The Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, NY has deeply shaped this vision—guiding me to see the body not only as record, but as a vessel of queer futurity. In sifting through the archive, I found a mirror: a way inward. I came to understand that lesbians have always carved out worlds of our own—and within those worlds, I began to see a space where I, too, belong. In returning to this body of work, I trace the threads of lesbian lineage—diverse, intergenerational, and alive—while honoring our right to not only be seen, but to be witnessed in motion, in becoming.

      Dyke Diaries of New York City is a compilation of portraits and video interviews of lesbians living in New York City as means of humanizing our experience—to exhibit the joy, love, and liberation that comes with lesbianism. Each individual is presented with a series of the same questions, inquiring their notions of being a lesbian and how it intersects with their gender, childhood, relationships, and community. While the project is heavily documentary based, I am not inclined to keep to the strict boundaries of documentary, as lesbianism is not a boundary, but a freedom. I want to make the images and videos visually aesthetic while keeping the word of the sitter. Each photo of the individual will include an overlay of a statement in their own handwriting, answering the question “what makes you happy?” I leave this question for each individual to capture their humanness and personality. My project is not only a social commentary and a means to my own exploration of lesbianism, but also as a means of healing; to reside the dirty feeling of the word and find beauty in it.