Paula Gately Tillman is a photographer from Baltimore, Maryland. Gately Tillman is most well known for her 1980s and 1990s work in New York and Atlanta, documenting underground scenes and fringe personalities. Her photography has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is represented in numerous public and private collections, including the permanent collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art; Decker Library at Maryland Institute College of Art; Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Sheriden Libraries, at Johns Hopkins University; Fales Library at New York University; and the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University. Gately Tillman’s award-winning book, Fringe, New York and Atlanta, 1984 to 1997, and her collector’s box are also featured in these collections.
Paula studied photography in Aspen, Colorado, under the guidance of internationally published photographer Eileen Lewis and moved to New York to take classes at the School of Visual Arts as well as pursue a career in photography. It was in 1984 that she met Brant Mewborn, then senior editor of Rolling Stone, who introduced her to the thriving scene of musicians, drag queens, and other collaborators that she would later photograph. During her combined time in New York and Atlanta, her subjects included the American Music Show, RuPaul, Michael Musto, Tish and Snooky Bellomo, Wigstock, John Kelly, Lady Bunny, Nelson Sullivan, Dick Richards, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Phoebe Legere, and others.
