A photo book titled Sex, Clubs, Dissent: Visualising Queer Nightlife defends the culture-shaping role of cheeky snapshots taken inside and after clubs. It presents nightlife photography from the 1960s to today, including tensions involved in documenting sexy, messy, and politically charged moments of queer life. Contributions from artists such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Sunil Gupta, and Kia LaBeija frame the genre as both community reportage and an art form. The selection is fluid and feelings-led, aiming to feel like a night out, with images spanning continents, decades, and styles. It avoids sanitized depictions by including explicit sex-related imagery and juxtaposing protest and party scenes, using nonlinear formats such as film stills, studio portraits, and even a Grindr screenshot.
"A new photo book called Sex, Clubs, Dissent: Visualising Queer Nightlife offers a striking defence of the culture-shaping role of cheeky snapshots taken inside and after the club. The anthology, edited by writer and London dancefloor regular Amelia Abraham, takes an expansive view of nightlife photography from the 1960s until today, embracing the tensions of documenting some of the most sexy, messy and politically charged moments of queer life."
"The book is fluid and feelings-led, explains Abraham. I wanted it to feel like a night out. The image selection ranging continents, decades and styles is cacophonous. Film stills, studio portraits, and even a Grindr screenshot take readers on a nonlinear dance through scenes of queer sociality."
"The book avoids a sanitised view of what goes on after dark, with the first sex section featuring stripteases, faces-in-crotches and hands-in-pants. One of the most arresting images was shot by Phyllis Christopher in San Francisco in 1991. A woman in tights pees in a back alley, in a neighbourhood that was home to many men-only leather bars."
"There's a cheekiness to certain image selections and placements. Roxy Lee, raucous documentarian of London's Adonis party, offers up portraits of people in skimpy club attire. Her photo of a dog in a dress is an unlikely closing image for the sex section."
Read at www.theguardian.com
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