At school it was easy to get exposure to cutting-edge lesbian photography - hey, people tacked it up in the bathrooms. In Anchorage, some 2,000 miles away from the Bay Area's hard-core left-wing politics and acceptance of gay culture, it's a bit more rare for someone like Jill Posener to just drop in.

Well, this award-winning, world-renowned, mistress of the darkroom, radical feminist protester will be in town, Friday and Saturday, at Out North Contemporary Art House. Our local gay culture magnets at Out North are showing her photographic works, "Louder than Words," through Nov. 25.

Posener, considered one of the most influential lesbian photographers in the world, will be present at the opening of her visual arts extravaganza for book signing and conversation. The opening takes place Friday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday night at 7 p.m. she'll present "Nothing But the Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image," a slide and lecture program about the book she edited of the same name, which includes many of her photographs.

"Nothing But the Girl" was co-edited with famous lesbian cultural commentator and humorist Susie Bright, and includes the works of over 30 lesbian photographers. Bright says of the significance of the book, "Lesbian-made porn/erotica/you-name-it arose in the early '80s as a renunciation of the commercial porn boys club, a slap in the face to heterosexism and the male gaze. It was and is a tribute to the diversity, egalitarianism, and authenticity in the women's community."

In over 150 black and white photographs, the lesbian image - sexy, maverick, rebellious, butch yet glamorous, strong and simultaneously vulnerable - has been pioneered and developed by these extraordinary photographers. The images revel in notions of masculinity and queerness while also speaking to a woman's touch and pleasure.

The "Louder than Words" show, which remains at Out North long after Posener zips back to San Francisco, is a collection of her works from over 21 years of involvement in lesbian and feminist activism around the globe. And it isn't like she had trouble putting together a show, her portfolio has been building at major exhibitions in Australia, Canada, London, Washington, San Francisco and through shots in dozens of publications.

Says Posener of her camera, "From my earliest political awakenings as a young teenager marching on the streets of Berlin protesting the Viet Nam War, to my committed radical feminism in the mid '70s, to a more reflective community-based activism here in California, the camera has been my partner in crime, documenting those things that move me, make me laugh or cry."

It's likely that Posener's presentation and show opening will be well attended, and that it will attract a strong representation of Anchorage's lesbian, bisexual and gay community - kind of like our own little Santa Cruz - but it's no fun always preaching to the converted. Why don't you challenge your assumptions and experience Posener for yourself?