RENEGADES: SAN FRANCISCO, THE 1990s

While pursuing my degree in photography at the San Francisco Art Institute in the 1990s, I began documenting a generation of young, self-identified queers in the Mission District. Rent was affordable, and gay youth, outcasts, artists, and free spirits migrated to San Francisco to find one another. The sense of community was palpable as a queer cultural renaissance unfolded. Bars, clubs, tattoo shops, galleries, cafes, bookstores, and women-owned businesses proliferated. A new wave of feminism embraced gender bending, and butch/femme culture flourished.

I was impressed by the collective creativity, support, pride, and strident defiance of cultural norms. This subculture emerged against the backdrop of mainstream society. All shot on 35mm film, my photographs from this vibrant era connect current and future generations to the pulse of the city during a unique time when difference and homecoming were unapologetically celebrated.

128 pages | Published by Hatje Cantz | 10x43 x -067 x 11.3 in | ISBN-10 3775755179

DAZED MAGAZINE  quote by Emily Dinsdale

"While shining a light on the evident sense of community and collaboration galvanizing the city’s queer circles, they also preserve a sense of the styles and fashions that characterised this boundary-pushing scene."

MUSÉE MAGAZINE quote by Max Weiner

"Chloe Sherman offers a deliciously raw look into one of the most turbulent periods for the city's queer community, which was vibrant not only in America but also globally.”