Photographer Paula Gately Tillman, a Baltimore native, is best 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 Baltimore Museum of Art.
Tillman 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 there 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 RuPaul, Michael Musto, Tish and Snooky Bellomo, John Kelly, Miss Guy, Nelson Sullivan, Dick Richards, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, and others.