In photos: The queer ‘renegades’ who built community in 1990s San Francisco.
Photographer Chloe Sherman had rarely used social media, until a chance discovery by her daughter prompted her to revisit her work documenting the queer community in 1990s San Francisco.
Sherman’s daughter, home from college in the spring of 2021, had noticed her mother’s photograph “Kindred Spirits, 1994” posted on Instagram — but without a tag or credit. “It was this moment, and her subsequent actions, that really opened the floodgates of renewed interest (in that part of my career),” Sherman told CNN in an interview.
Looking back on the image inspired Sherman to re-engage more broadly with her archives. Although she had previously exhibited some photographs from her time in San Francisco, the majority of her work, which she shot on 35-millimeter film, only existed as negatives. So, after Sherman’s daughter and a friend helped create an Instagram account for her, she began digitizing and uploading her photos onto the platform.
“I started scanning and posting, and the response was enormous… it just became this huge network of ‘90s connections and old friends,” she said. “It is a labor of love to sort through a decade of film.”
