Renegades | San Francisco: Queer Life in the 1990s

In the 1990s, San Francisco was the stronghold of queer life in the Western-influenced world. Young queer people, artists and free spirits flocked to the city to experiment with art, style, gender and identity, to be free, and to live their lives independent of mainstream society.

Young photographer Chloe Sherman also enjoyed life in the West Coast metropolis famous for its openness. With the nuanced eye of an insider, her photographs document an evolving community that resolutely rebelled against prevailing cultural norms and developed its own unique rules for dealing with common gender ascriptions and social coexistence.

For 30 years, the photographs of that period were stored forgotten in the photographer’s archive. RENEGADES. San Francisco: Queer Life in the 1990s presents the outstanding and historically significant photographs to an audience outside the USA for the first time. Chloe Sherman’s exhibition captures the rebellious spirit of the era and candidly portrays a forward-thinking era.

The exhibition was curated by Nadine Barth und Katharina Mouratidi. All accompanying program can be found here.

With the kind support of the Hannchen-Mehrzweck-Stiftung.

Image: In My Chevy Nova, Ace Driving, 1997 © Chloe Sherman

The exhibition is accompanied by a book published by Hatje Cantz. The publication is available at f³ – freiraum für fotografie:
Chloe Sherman | RENEGADES. San Francisco: The 1990s
Nadine Barth, Katharina Mouratidi (eds.), Text(s): Lynn Breedlove, Catherine Opie, Anna Joy Springer.
Design: Julia Wagner, grafikanstalt.
2023, English. 128 pages, 90 images, Hardcover 26×28 cm.
ISBN 978-3-7757-5517-7