Welcome Skye Bartlett!

Skye Bartlett – Our New Cultural Preservation Program Manager

We are extremely pleased to announce our new Cultural Preservation Program Manager, Skye Bartlett. We believe that the breadth and depth of knowledge Skye brings to the Australian BDSM Archives will launch us into a new era of historical collection and preservation of our BDSM communities across Australia.

Skye is a person of many talents and interests. Self described as a photographer, Leatherman, post-modern cowboy, sexual health activist, husband, partner, cat lover, fashion historian and curator, tea drinker, lasagna aficionado, and Mr. Adelaide Leather 2022, he has been involved in the Australian Leather community for over 20 years. He is a founding member of Adelaide Leather and Fetish, the creator of the Mr Adelaide Leather title in 2016 and the Ms Adelaide Leather title in 2018. He has been highly involved in supporting people living with HIV in South Australia, primarily supporting the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation to reduce stigma and decrease social isolation.

An award-winning photographer, Skye is the author of two photography books. “One Last Look” is a body of work celebrating members of the Australian and international Leather scene through constructionist portraiture. “Silhouettes: Fashion in the Shadow of HIV/AIDS”, was created in conjunction with a world first exhibition for The David Roche Foundation of the same name that he curated. He also created and curated “Provocateur: Fetish Through the Photographer’s Lens”, which features works from talented photographers around the world specialising or dabbling in the art of fetish and kink photography. Provocateur has raised thousands of dollars for the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation SA.

Skye is a textile / fashion collector and historian, custodian of an important historic fashion collection, and a benefactor of The Art Gallery of South Australia. With a special interest in AIDS history, in 2020–2021 he curated an exhibition of the South Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt with the History Trust of SA, which was revived for the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre in 2022. In 2024 he also was instrumental in bringing to life the exhibition, “Style & Spirit: The Fashion of Chester Weinberg”, the first high profile fashion designer to pass away from AIDS in 1985.