Tara Pixley

Glitter sparkles across people and surfaces, rainbow-colored acrylic nails snap in time to the Afrobeat, and boisterous cheers egg on the occasional dance floor death drop. These are moments that make up spaces created for and by queer and trans people of color (QTPOC). From Los Angeles to Philadelphia, New York City to Atlanta, queer community organizers, DJs, musicians and artists are producing monthly pop-up events that attendees and organizers say are reimagining queer liberation through collective joy. Events range from underground warehouse raves like @hoodraveintl in Los Angeles to sunlit day parties and potlucks featuring patio yoga. Regardless of format, the trappings of queer life and culture are evident everywhere you look — necklaces made of popper bottles; chest harnesses as fashion; flags; fans; cheeky political statements across nails, hats and tees. The recognition of Black and Brown queer experiences is often apparent in event titles, like New York City’s notorious @papijuicebk dance party and Los Angeles’ weekly @latoxicaparty event for sapphic Latine queers. These parties also frequently double as advocacy work, where they highlight mutual aid campaigns, promote queer causes and spread political awareness. In recent years, DJ shouts of “Free Palestine” are frequently met with affirmative cheers from dance floors dotted with keffiyehs and watermelon imagery. "There’s this sense of pain shared among QTBIPOC […] and therefore the joy that is experienced at these parties feels more necessary, more dire and more of a relief," said performance studies scholar Nicole Prucha. QTPOC parties are also changing the tunes of gay nightlife from the pop/EDM/disco variety to a musical mix of hip-hop, trap, house, reggaeton, soca and Afrobeats. The 19th sent photographers to queer pop-up parties and events in Oakland, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta to show these spaces of radical queer joy in action and highlight the work that queer organizers are doing to build community across the country. Swipe through to see these celebrations and read more at the 🔗 in our bio. ✍️: @tlpix , photo editor 📸: @riahmiranda , @manuel.orbegozo , @slumpiera for The 19th

What if visual journalism centered care as much as coverage? Our (@judywalgren + @tlpix ) new book, Critical Photojournalism: Contemporary Ethics & Practices, offers essential practical skills plus a groundbreaking framework based on an ethic of care to reshape how visual stories are told. 💡 Navigate ethics, access + informed consent 📰 Tackle implicit bias 🧠 Prioritize self-care + safety 🌍 Embrace global + decolonial approaches 🔗 to order book in bio! Bonus resources → criticalphotojournalism.com 📸 @mohammedsalem85

WHYY News & Bridging Blocks host their 3rd Civic News Summit this weekend at WHYY in Philadelphia, exploring best practices for newsrooms to engage their communities in the practice of civic journalism. Registration is free and open to the public. Visit whyy.org/events for details.

In 2025, I published my first book, worked with incredible journalists while photo editing for The 19th, mentored and trained journalists around the world and took 52 flights (!!) from Puerto Rico to Barcelona, Miami, Nassau, Playa del Carmen, Phoenix, Tulsa and so many other cities.  So grateful for every experience and the people who make it all worthwhile.

For nine months, I worked alongside @justincookphoto and Angela Evans as a coach and advisor for the @solutionsjournalism Climate Beacon News Initiative, supporting five local newsrooms as they produced solutions-focused visual journalism. We had the opportunity to work in person with Cherokee and Osage Nation journalists, photographing community farms, building drone skills, and grappling with the deeply complex settler-colonial histories shaping reservation oil rights and land stewardship. Learning together meant chasing light, slowing down, and practicing visual storytelling grounded in care, accountability, and local expertise. Learning what it looks like to tell climate stories rooted in place, history, and community knowledge. Collaboration with @solutionsjournalism

Whenever school is out, families who rely on school meals often face higher food costs at home. For parents like Lena McCree, a full-time student and mother of four in Ventura, California, school holidays mean balancing work, caregiving, and finding ways to fill those nutrition gaps while still making space for joy. Lena invited us to spend time with her family during the summer months: picnics, pool days, beach outings, and visits to their local food share, where community support helps stretch limited resources. Photographed for @feedingamerica

So excited for @tlpix + @judywalgren ’s “Critical Photojournalism” textbook to be out in the world for visual media professors everywhere, and especially honored that I was asked to write the foreword in this unsteady moment for our industry. The sustainability of a career in photojournalism may feel very rocky right now (and boy, it is), but we need ethical, transparent, dedicated photojournalists more than ever.

Repost from @19thnews • Two days before Estela Ramos Baten was detained during a mandatory immigration check-in, she turned 45. It would be her last birthday. The mother-of-seven’s health was already fragile when she and her teenage daughter, Nory Sontay Ramos, were deported to their native Guatemala on July 4. Ramos Baten’s arms ached after years of labor as a seamstress, but as persistent as that pain was, it hadn’t devastated her body like her inflamed liver and high blood pressure. She was in such physical torment that she could no longer work. Then, being abruptly removed from Los Angeles, where she had lived since 2016, deprived her of medical treatment, her relatives said. Nine weeks later, Ramos Baten died from complications of liver cirrhosis after complaining she felt ill that day. To immigration advocates, her death was not an isolated event but the end result of policy shifts that have sown terror and chaos in immigrant communities since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Trump pledged to target immigrants with criminal records, but his reach has been far wider. Women who lack permanent legal status, like Ramos Baten — asylum seekers, mothers and longtime residents — are now casualties. Her mother’s death has left Sontay Ramos mourning and managing adult responsibilities in a country that feels largely foreign. “It’s really hard at a young age dealing with all of this,” she said. “It’s really hard to be handling a lot of grown-up things.” Read more through the 🔗 in our bio. ✍️: @nadrakar , education reporter 📸: @stella_kalinina & @zaydee.s for The 19th

I’ve never made a year-in-review reel but too much happened in 2024 to not pay homage and thank the folks who held me down while I wrote my first book, moved cities, parented teenagers and did one million more things I can barely remember. Thank you to @thee_ali_cat @collinchappelle @caydenchappelle @caushana @katcontreras @zaydee.s @saltmarshes @auroradewey @prxcha @xingonxillon @jovelletamayo @chalateca_muxer @fotodelex @jeje_rajab @judywalgren and so many more beautiful people who made this year bearable despite …. everything. So many firsts this year: skiing (not a fan). Zion National Park. Echo Park swans and kayaking the LA River. Magic Castle (lifelong goal realized). Babby’s First Opera (thank you @katcontreras !). Gay Disney night. First and last Hamptons trip (wildly racist. 10 out of 10 do not recommend). Curated and/or exhibited work in four photo shows. Went to The Kalish, Photoville, and premiered a film I consulted on at the SB Film Festival. (Post-Kalish lesson learned: Jetblue strands you in Rochester? Impromptu roadtrip in a car full of Geminis.) Gave talks at Northern Exposure and SRCCON in Indianapolis, Eddie Adams in upstate NY, NLGJA in LA, Visual1st in San Francisco, ASA in Baltimore (with all the queer scholar homies) and co-planned Women in Visual Journalism in Dallas. Took 8 students for a journalism bootcamp in DC (thanks @mariahmirandaphoto for showing me around). So many pool days. Bday picnics and beach bonfires. Dancedancedance at QTPOC parties, unhinged desert music festivals, Stud Country, Dom Dolla (with 70,000 people!), and by train tracks at a Philly rave. Canadian queer coffee shop wedding and drag shows, Broadway and performance art from Toronto to Miami, NYC to LA. Childish Gambino, Doecchi, Janelle Monae, Hermanos Gutierrez + Leon Bridges in concert. Kiddo graduations, first prom and more Girl Scout events than I can count. Drove 3,000 miles from LA to Philly and moved @caydenchappelle into his college dorm with an ocean view (?!) 1 down 1 to go. Rolling into 2025 with that come-at-me-bro energy.

Too brief yacht life with family. I am a boat person. #miami

Trying to share more of my life because I rarely find the time to post and I'm looking back at thousands of photos/videos I didn't post in 2024. 👀 Some outtakes from a recent Miami trip for family, friends, and Art Basel. 1. @katcontreras took me to their favorite Key Biscayne beach and we spent most of the time taking photos of each other in this wildly gorgeous seascape. 2. Vizacaya Museum and Gardens. 3. Amid all the odes to excess and conquest at Vizcaya Gardens, this sculpture stood out. Could it be a conquistador having a rare moment of conscience about the horrors of colonization? 4. @thee_ali_cat and I took @caydenchappelle and @araiah.danaee to their first drag show at The Palace. Learning those key fan life skills. 5. People lost their minds for these elephants on South Beach. 6. So lovely to see the brilIiant work of @muholizanele walking up to Basel. 7-8. Hella reflective surfaces at Basel this year. Category is: humanity, look at yourself. 9. Ai Weiwei’s “Fuck em All” piece made of toy bricks really resonated. 10. Wynwood street art. Wya.

BRAND NEW WORKSHOP! Candid Capture: Mastering the Art of Photojournalism with Tara Pixley 📆 Dates - Virtual Classes: Wednesdays, April 2, April 9, April 30, May 14, 11 am – 1 pm PST Field Trips: Wednesday, April 16, 3:30 – 5:30 pm PST + Saturday, May 10, 5 pm – 7 pm PST 🛜 Hybrid Learning – Six Sessions 📸 @tlpix Students will explore the art and ethics of photojournalism, learning to capture candid, authentic moments that tell compelling stories. Through a mix of lectures, critiques, and hands-on fieldwork, students will gain the skills to approach subjects with sensitivity, compose powerful images, and incorporate photojournalistic techniques into various photography styles, from editorial to documentary work. . . . #tarapixley #photobook #lacp #lacphoto #photocenter #photobook #Photographybook #bookpublishing #photojournalism #photographyworkshop