By Paul Varnell

Contributing writer

As part of its celebration of Women’s History Month, the Center on Halsted is presenting “Cycles: A Generational Snapshot from Four Chicago Lesbians,” an exhibition of photographs by lesbians whose ages span four decades. The participants include Kat Fitzgerald, Corri Christensen, Chelcie Porter and Betty Lark Ross.

It is not clear that the photographs say anything specific about lesbians and their subject matter or style. Perhaps that is the point. But three of the four women do emphasize pictures of or including women, while the fourth takes a more personal, historical approach by recording scenes reminiscent of her earlier life.

Betty Lark Ross, 56, contributes seven photographs of women, four of them fire dancers from the Chicago-based group, “Spunn.” The photographs bearing such titles as “All Around Girl” and “Fireweaver” show women swinging balls of fire through the air, making circles and patterns in the darkness, while another shows two women dancing together with fire burning at the ends of sticks attached to their fingers.

Referring to her photographs of women, Ross says she is “mesmerized by their unique beauty, especially women who flaunt their creativity.” She adds, “I quest for the magical moments of visual seduction, creative play and the magic of light at night.

“She’s Still a Kid at Heart” shows Ross’ partner Becky Flory wearing various disguises such as glasses, a mustache, a tiara, a false nose like a pig’s or a large hanger through her nose. A Cinemascope-wide photograph titled “After the Pillow Fight,” drawn from a local performance, shows four attractive women seemingly asleep on a large number of pillows.

Almost all of the photographs by Kat Fitzgerald, 47, are close-ups of women faces. “All my pictures have something to do with the eyes,” she says, reminding viewers of the old adage that “the eyes are the windows of the soul.” One photo showing little more than an eye is appropriately titled “Windows.” Many of the women are carefully made up and groomed, as if for a model’s photo shoot, which may be where they came from.

Three of the photos include musical instruments. “Piano Composition” shows a woman at a piano, while two others show a woman with a guitar. For those who cannot quite place the women, she is Heather Styka, a local performer.

Some of the titles are elusive, but “Flight” is meant to suggest the enjoyment the woman took in tossing her short hair around. “Softer” and “Softness” are more obviously intended to suggest a quality that emanates from the model.

Corri Christensen, 34, shares black and white photographs of scenes on a farm that she says she visits occasionally for spiritual uplift. She herself lived on a farm in rural St. Charles between 1983 and 1995, so rural land clearly has deep resonance for her. “I feel it is important to record our present environment—the world around us which we have taken so for granted is changing at warp speed,” Christensen commented.

The photos, all taken in January 2008, emphasize the buildings on the farm; none has humans in them, and only two have animals, one with a horse and one with a bull, the latter with the unlikely title of “Cutie Pie.” Christensen tends to balance buildings with a tall vertical object such as trees, a silo or a tall tower that resembles a microwave relay tower, although Christensen said she wasn’t sure what kind of tower it is.

The farm buildings include a tall barn, a low barn and a bunkhouse for farm hands. The photograph titled “Blue Lights,” Christensen says, is named for the fact that sometimes at night an unexplained blue aura seems to envelop the barn. She offers no explanation for the seeming phenomenon.

At 26, Chelcie Porter is the youngest of the women in the exhibition. Her photographs represent a range of styles and subject matter, but seem united by a desire to document and subtly comment on the social and natural world around her.

“Ladies and Bags” a photographs of female mannequins in swimsuits and carrying tote bags, is a subtle commentary on style consciousness, especially among young lesbians, many of whom combine modern feminism with an awareness of fashion, Porter says.

“Biloxi Trees,” a simple nature photograph, reminds us that Porter is originally from the Gulf Coast, an area that was hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. “Black Woman Smiling” may be another photo taken in that area. Two photographs, “Drummer’s Belly” and “Social Gathering,” show half-dressed men and women playing drums and listening at a free-spirited 1960s-style “Be-In” or “Happening.”

(More pictures from the exhibition are online at HYPERLINK "http://www.chicagofreepress.com"www.chicagofreepress.com.)

“Cycles: A Generational Snapshot from Four Chicago Lesbians,” Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, in the second floor gallery space. Open every day 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Exhibition runs through April 3.