{"id":30215,"date":"2026-07-14T17:01:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/?p=30215"},"modified":"2026-07-14T17:07:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:07:42","slug":"meryl-meisler-queer-friendly-nightlife-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/meryl-meisler-queer-friendly-nightlife-now\/","title":{"rendered":"MERYL MEISLER: QUEER-FRIENDLY NIGHTLIFE NOW"},"content":{"rendered":"

Press Release courtesy of CPW<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nSix Rox Republich Legs on the Bar, Le Bain, New York, NY, June 2025 by Meryl Meisler.<\/em><\/p>\n

MERYL MEISLER:QUEER-FRIENDLY NIGHTLIFE NOW<\/a>
\nAll-New Work Premieres at the Inaugural
\nCPW Upstate Photography Biennial
\nOpening Reception: May 30, 2026, 5pm \u2013 8pm
\nOn View: May 30 \u2013 September 6, 2026
\nGallery Hours: Thursday to Sunday 11am \u2013 5pm CPW,
\n25 Dederick Street, Kingston, NY
\ncpw.org | merylmeisler.com<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, NY\u2014 Nearly five decades after documenting disco-era revelry, photographer Meryl Meisler<\/a> returns with a bold new body of work capturing the pulse of contemporary queer nightlife\u2014its grit, glamour, and enduring sense of community. Meryl Meisler: Queer-Friendly Nightlife Now premieres the CPW’s inaugural Upstate Photography Biennial, a new exhibition series featuring 39 artists from across the region, opening May 30, 2026.<\/p>\n

Meisler’s fascination with nightlife began in the 1970s, when, as a photography student, she first encountered Brassa\u00ef’s Secret Paris of the ’30s. After moving to New York in 1975 to study with Lisette Model, she immersed herself in the city’s pulsing disco scene, photographing an exuberant, inclusive world from an insider’s point of view. For decades, the photographs were tucked away, unseen.<\/p>\n

By the early 1980s, Meisler stepped back from the nightlife scene to become a schoolteacher \u2014 and when the AIDS epidemic devastated that world, she withdrew entirely. She returned in 2013, after retiring, drawn back by a chance encounter with BIZARRE, a drag and burlesque club in Bushwick, Brooklyn \u2014 the neighborhood where she had once taught. The club rekindled the energy and camaraderie that first drew her in, and later exhibited and published her earliest nightlife photographs, bringing them into public view for the first time.<\/p>\n

A second turning point came in 2021. While exhibiting in Berlin, Meisler received VIP invitations to nightclubs\u2014but cameras were strictly forbidden. The experience sharpened her awareness of the hard-won trust and access she had built at home: back in New York, performers and producers knew her work and welcomed her lens. She resumed photographing with renewed purpose.<\/p>\n

Working today with the same analog camera, flash, and darkroom techniques she used in the 1970s, Meisler captures a new generation of performers\u2014drag artists, burlesque dancers, showgirls, DJs, MCs and nightlife regulars \u2014 onstage and off. Her images move fluidly between spectacle and intimacy, revealing the electricity of performance and the candid moments between acts and behind the scenes. Now approaching the age of one of her earliest subjects \u2014 Disco Sally, a widow in her late 70s who ruled the floors of Studio 54 and more\u2014Meisler returns with a seasoned perspective, capturing resilient joy and community with deeper intention and clarity, and keeping an earlier curfew.<\/p>\n

About CPW and The Upstate Photography Biennal<\/h2>\n

CPW’s Upstate Photography Biennial is a landmark new exhibition series celebrating the vitality and diversity of photographic practices across upstate New York. Organized by CPW curators Marina Chao and Adam Giles Ryan, the inaugural exhibition features 39 artists. Founded in 1977, CPW is a nonprofit arts organization based in Kingston, NY, dedicated to supporting artists working in photography and related media while engaging audiences through exhibitions, education, and public programs. It serves as an important cultural resource for the Hudson Valley\u2019s artistic community and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queer-Friendly Nightlife Now at CPW Photography Biennial, May 30, 2026 – September 5, 2026 at CPW, 25 Dederick Street, Kingston, NY, USA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1466,22,23],"tags":[1770],"class_list":["post-30215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-northeastern-united-states","category-photography","category-queer-art","tag-meryl-meisler"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t