 Rose used photography to document the subcultures she participated in, and was the primary photographer at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice, Los Angeles, where her photographic subjects included Exene Cervenka and John Doe of X, Dennis Cooper, Ed Smith, Amy Gerstler, and David Trinidad.Rose met Bob Flanagan in 1980, and the two began a relationship both as romantic partners and close artistic collaborators that lasted until Flanagan's death in 1996.Sadomasochism was central to Rose and Flanagan's relationship, and throughout the 1980s, the two focused on BDSM community organizing and advocacy, including the formation of the Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Janus.