Jennifer Beals's The L Word: A Photographic Journal is a gift to fans and a part of LGBTQ+ history

There's an early aughts black-and-white photo of Kate Moennig in a white tank top with her arms spread to her wingspan on the set of The L Word. In another, Mia Kirschner cradles a to-go cup of some beverage while sporting boots and a leather jacket. Another sees Jennifer Beals reflected in the mirror as she photographs Laurel Holloman, her on-screen love in the series that changed visibility for so many queer women. Those analog photographs Beals shot throughout the show’s six seasons were originally for Beals’s recollection and later a keepsake for her castmates and crew.

When stars of The L Word, including Moennig, Leisha Hailey, and others, suggested she release the book for the fans, those photographs, interviews Beals conducted, and scraps of scripts and other keepsakes in 2010’s The L Word Book became a part of a collective memory and a record of events of queer history. An ardent ally and activist, Beals donated proceeds to the queer youth organization GLSEN. Since the book was unavailable for years, Beals is publishing those memories anew in The L Word: A Photographic Journal, due out in April.

Laurel Holloman, Leisha Hailey, Eric Mabius photographed by Jennifer Beals in The L Word: A Photographic Journal Jennifer Beals

“My other castmates made me realize that the collection of photos, which were originally supposed to be a cast and crew gift, were actually something that could be valuable to the community at large, to the fan community,” Beals tells The Advocate. She shares that she realized the keepsake’s potential at her first fan convention for the show.

“Everybody was so kind and so in love with the show in the way that it helped them navigate their own identities, knowing that these characters are flawed, knowing that it's not reality per se, but it was a lens by which people could navigate their own identities,” Beals says. “I thought, as much as it's a remembrance of, for me, perhaps it's a remembrance of, for that fan who will look at the picture, the photographs in a totally different way and remember themselves in a completely different place and how they responded to that episode or to that character, or to that act.”

In 1983, Beals shot to fame in Flashdance and went on to star in films including Mrs. Parker and The Vicious Circle (1994), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), and the LGBTQ-themed Twilight of the Golds (1996). A self-described introvert, Beals says that viewing the world through the camera's lens gave her “not a fearlessness, but I was so in love with the world. I was so in love with the world that I would go anywhere and really photograph anything.”

Pam Grier photographed by Jennifer Beals in The L Word: A Photographic Journal Jennifer Beals

The L Word: A Photographic Journal chronicles the six seasons of creator Ilene Chaiken’s original L Word, broken out by seasons. Early pages include her first scene with Holloman when Bette and Tina amorously decide to “make a baby,” a moment where so many queer women saw themselves reflected for perhaps the first time in TV history that continues to ripple through the culture.

“[Photography] is just a way to sort of touch base with this moment that I know is fleeting. And I just had a sense, even at the beginning of the show, that I really wanted to document this moment. I didn't know how long this would last, but I wanted to document all of us being there together,” Beals says of coming together in Vancouver to shoot the show’s pilot.

Jennifer Beals' The L Word: A Photographic Journal cover image Jennifer Beals

It’s joyful and moving flip through Beals’s photographic journal, which presents her memories of the era but also conjures one's own memories of where they were when they first encountered Bette’s power suits, Shane’s and Alice’s early 2000s haircuts, and the first time Pam Grier’s Kit Porter called Bette “baby sis.” Revisiting the book stirred Beals’s memories too. Among her favorite recollections is working with Grier and the late Ossie Davis, who played her father, to form their on-screen family.

“It was also wonderful to witness Kate and Leisha kind of falling in love, friendship love,” she adds.

As for the interviews she conducted just as the show ended in 2009, she says, “What I am struck by over and over again is how Mia Kirschner can change molecules in a room.”

“She was such an inspiration to everybody. Little mischievous elf that she was at times [she] is also really one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met, and the way that she approached her work and the way that she saw the world, I think, really affected all of us, really changed all of us,” Beals says.

Photographs and notes from Jennifer Beals' The L Word: A Photographic Journal Jennifer Beals

Twenty-plus years later, fans continue to discover The L Word, and some of them came to it through the 2020 reboot,The L Word: Generation Q, which ran for three seasons that Beals, Hailey, and Moennig executive produced. Beals writes in the foreword for the new book about how playing Bette for six years ignited her activism around LGBTQ+ causes, gender equity, and the environment. From a fierce and generous ally, The L Word: A Photographic Journal is ultimately a gift to fans just discovering the series and those who’ve been with it since the beginning.

“Fans of The L Word: Generation Qdiscovered the book and then it wasn't available. And so they said, ‘Can you please make it available?' And this was a while ago,” Beals says. “This was before the shift, this cultural shift right now. I’m just really, really glad it came together because I so admire our fans. They really inspire me.”

“I’ve done a couple of fan conventions now, and the stories that people lay at my feet and share with me and the things that they say about how The L Word helped them is so moving to me,” she adds. “That story can do that, then that affect can become effect.”

Pre-order The L Word: A Photographic Journal here.