Life

Photos from San Francisco’s Rebellious 90s Lesbian Scene

lesbiene queer anii 90

Photographer Chloe Sherman was at art school in the 90s when she began taking pictures of San Francisco’s lesbian and queer scene – a group of jobbing workers, creatives and rebels living and breathing the last freedoms of a city now better known for high rents and clean T-shirted tech bros.

Sherman’s candid portraits see young lesbians and queers in cars, at bars, carving out a different path to adulthood. Inspired by photographer Del LaGrace’s photographs of London’s dyke scene, Sherman captured her own world of femmes and butches, punks and studs, filling a wall-width cupboard with 35mm negatives. A selection has been made and displayed at an exhibition titled Renegade San Francisco: The 1990s at Schlomer Haus Gallery in SF.

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Sherman, who grew up in New York before moving to the West Coast, spoke to VICE about the importance of the scene she documents in Renegade.

VICE: How important is it to have historical representation of lesbians made available to younger generations?  Chloe Sherman: I came to photography as an artist seeking to expose my community. But on reflection it’s far more powerful as queer history. It helps other people reflect on their own youth and freedom and experience. Understanding and sharing queer history gives new generations an experience to relate to, to mimic, or even to rebel against. This was one extended family within a huge umbrella picture and it was cutting-edge, rebellious and eccentric. It may have been one of the many roads that forged what we know today.

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Anna Joy at Home, 1997. Photo: Chloe Sherman

**Do you think enough is done in general to remember and celebrate lesbian culture?
**Some of us start to get cynical about Pride but I feel the importance of it, especially internationally. I’m spoiled, living in an urban bubble, because not everywhere gets to experience this level of freedom. Supporting LGBTQIA and women-owned businesses is important too. Art, writings, book and press as well are art forms that record our presence, our humanity and participating in the community they create is important.

What was the scene like in those days? I only speak from my own experience – some friends say it wasn’t a great time – but like riot grrrl in Portland and Seattle, San Francisco in the 90s was a pivotal time. Rent was cheap, especially in comparison to anything anybody could possibly fathom now, so queer youth, outcasts, artists, and free spirits flocked to the city to be free and find each another. The Mission was full of bars, clubs, tattoo shops, galleries, cafes, bike messenger companies, bookstores and women-owned businesses. With this, a new wave of feminism embraced gender bending and butch/femme culture.

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The Heist, 1996. Photo: Chloe Sherman

**The low rents thing is a huge factor – if you want to go to a place where you’re tolerated, you go to a big city, but big cities have priced young people out. What sort of jobs did people need to do to afford to live in San Francisco back then?
**There were these large queer-owned organisations, warehouses, Rainbow Grocery – a health food co-op – bike messengering, stripping. A lot of people were young, at school or in bands and wanted alternative schedules. The range of class was very extremely diverse – runaways and homeless kids and people from affluent families who were kicked out of home.

**What are the biggest differences you notice between lesbians then and lesbians now?
**We always knew it was a special place and time. But back then there may have been a need for communal support – as a lifeline – in a much bigger way than there is now. Today it’s become more normalised to come out as gay, trans or queer. That said, not everyone has access and money to move to places to feel safer or finds it easy. It’s a really disturbing time with conservative laws passing – for women’s rights and for LGBTQIA rights – it’s a blink away from going right back to a repressive and dangerous place. This is why community is important, because you need to have a place to meet to have fun, to be yourself, to be creative.

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Harry and Shanna, 1997. Photo: Chloe Sherman

Butches and femmes play a huge part in your work – how important was that dynamic and aesthetic back then? There were butch/femme themes but not exclusively. San Francisco can be freezing at night and hot in the day and misty and everyone’s walking and biking everywhere – think combat boots, leather jackets and key-chains, everything attached to you!

Nineties youth were breaking away from the women’s lib feminism of the 80s, where it was suggested that embracing any element of masculinity would have you scorned. It felt limiting to a generation wanting to embrace gender-bending, butch/femme, trans, and break rules about gender identity. Rebellion happened, but in retrospect it was in appreciation for generations passed having done a shitload of work to allow for this next step to take place. That’s why it’s important for today’s youth to have glimpses of the past and to see how long something existed. You can be in a small town and think you’re the first person to be queer and then you look around and realise this has been happening for 25-30 years.

Renegade San Francisco: The 1990s is on until the 30th of July, 2022 at Schlomer Haus Gallery.

@sophwilkinson

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Amita and Sunny. Photo: Chloe Sherman
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Elitrea in the Desert, 1998. Photo: Chloe Sherman
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Asia’s Room, 1996. Photo: Chloe Sherman
Chloe Sherman_Machiko and Tietjen Hole in the Wall 1999.jpg
Machiko and Tientjen, Hole in the Wall 1999. Photo: Chloe Sherman
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View from the Backseat, SF, 1997. Photo: Chloe Sherman
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Silas and Keiron, 1994 Photo: Chloe Sherman
Chloe Sherman_The Mission San Francisco 1996.jpg
The Mission, San Francisco, 1996. Photo: Chloe Sherman