Chloe Sherman’s New Photo Exhibit Revives San Francisco’s Vibrant Lesbian Scene In The ‘90s
by Heather Cassell, originally published by the Bay Area Reporter
San Francisco has always been a place where people are free to explore and find themselves. The ‘90s was no exception, yet it was exceptional as queer fine art photographer Chloe Sherman demonstrates in her new exhibit “RENEGADE San Francisco: the 1990s,” opening June 17.
“San Francisco, through the decades, has been the wild and crazy end-of-the-rainbow place to arrive, whoever you are,” said Chloe about the “City by the Bay.”
Chloe, 53, felt that she came home when she arrived with her queer friends Tai Uhlmann and Alessandra Ogren in San Francisco from Portland, Oregon in 1991.
“It just felt like it was my home,” she said. “It was a very obvious place to arrive and stay.”
Rent was cheap and the city welcomed artists, outcasts, queers, and rebels. Basically, anyone who came to San Francisco could survive, live, create, and become who they wanted to be. It was a heady defiant time in the wake of the HIV/AIDS crisis’ bold activism with ACT UP and Queer Nation, actions against former President Bill Clinton’s anti-LGBTQ federal policies “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act, and a backlash against feminism. Communism and the Berlin Wall fell and there was a war in Iraq. The city was a cauldron of activism and creativity as Gen Xers came of age. The Digital Age was still on the horizon.
Aiming the lens and a the click of her shutter, Chloe captured the attitude and spirit of the city’s lesbian scene in the ‘90s.
“The 90s, in particular, was an incredible, kind of radical and pivotal time in the city,” Chloe said. “I knew it was an exciting time, and looking back at these photos, I can confirm that it was a unique and revolutionary era.”
Chloe’s first solo show, “RENEGADE,” reveals that revolutionary time in a rare exhibit displaying 36 archival pigment prints opening June 17 at the Schlomer Haus Gallery in the Castro. The exhibit features the iconic “Kindred Spirits,” and many photos never publicly seen before. The show runs through July 23.
Capturing Lesbian Spirit
“Kindred Spirits,” is an image of two shaved-headed Jewish queer women – Tai, left, and Alessandra, right – wearing yarmulkes and staring intensely into each other’s eyes.
The photo appeared in the 1996 award-winning coffee table photo book, “Nothing But the Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image: A Portfolio and Exploration of Lesbian Erotic Photography,” and on the cover of Tai and Alessandra’s 1996 short film, “Bad Jews in My Kitchen.”
More recently, an exhibit of Chloe’s work was curated by lesbian historian and writer Jenni Olson at the virtual Lexington Club at Last Butch.
Elena Rose, a 46-year-old Los Angeles lesbian, who lived in San Francisco in the 1990s, created Last Butch to preserve lesbian bar culture in an interactively way.
Then, Sara Lewis inked “Kindred Spirits” onto her chest last month.
“The Jewish dyke representation is exactly what I needed to see at that point in my life,” said Sara, a 29-year-old nonbinary queer Jewish lesbian, who was redefining Judaism at the time on her own terms when she found the photo inside an old copy of “Nothing But the Girl” at Dog Eared Books on Valencia Street.
The photo is “defiant in a certain way, with a lot of love in it,” said Tai, 49, a filmmaker who now lives outside of Vancouver. Like Sara, the group of queer Jews was redefining their faith and culture at the time.
“Kindred Spirits” will be recreated by Chloe, who self-describes as “culturally Jewish,” Alessandra, and Tai, they said.
Alessandra was unavailable to comment for this article.
Nearly 200 people are traveling from all over North America for the opening. Many are people who Chloe photographed in the 1990s.
Brandon Romer, who owns Schlomer Haus Gallery with his husband, Steffan Schlarb, called Chloe’s work “evocative.”
Brandon and Steffan opened the gallery in October 2021. They discovered Chloe after she started posting her photos on Instagram earlier this year, they said.
Chloe journeyed back to the ‘90s after someone tagged her online on a digital copy of “Kindred Spirits,” identifying her as the photographer, she said. The photo took on a life of its own for nearly 30 years, that she did not realize.
The ‘90s ended, Chloe started a family and career and filed her 20s and the era away.
Catalyzed by the tag, Chloe began reviewing and transforming her work from the 35-millimeter film for the digital age.
Chloe’s documentary-style photography “really highlights and elevates the ‘90s queer scene in San Francisco. It’s so evocative, it’s beautiful,” said Brandon.
Her images capture “a time and place [in San Francisco] that doesn’t quite exist anymore,” he continued, which “makes her work nostalgic and poignant, but also joyful and beautiful.”
Finding Voices
People who are in the photos Chloe took said they are excited about the exhibit. Speaking with the Girls That Roam, many recalled the period as a time of coming into themselves and finding their voices.
Chloe “captured something that really could have just fallen off the map,” said Silas Howard, 54, a queer transmasculine film and television director, who is one of the people she photographed.
Silas said he came into his creativity and political voice during the ‘90s.
“It formed me,” he said recalling the music, art, and the era teaching him to not wait for permission to act to make change. “If you want something done, because you’re not represented anywhere, it’s on you to do it.”
At the same time, “We weren’t taking photos ourselves. We weren’t documenting ourselves,” he said grateful for Chloe. “It was very much about the present moment.”
Elitrea Fry Jimenez, a 48-year-old queer gender-fluid person, came to San Francisco from Brooklyn in the ‘90s as a roadie for queercore riot grrrl punk rock band, Tribe 8, and never left. Jimenez recalled hanging out with the group at the Lexington Club, the city’s lesbian bar, and putting on a “badass persona” for Chloe and the camera. The Lexington Club closed in 2015.
Tribe 8 lead guitarist and backup vocalist Leslie Mah, who Chloe captured sitting on Elitrea’s lap at the bar, recalled her as being “kind of mischievous.”
“She was really beautiful,” said Leslie, a 58-year-old self-described dyke, who lives in Oakland. “She was able to finesse a scene” or capture people in the moment. “A lot of her photos were of people having a good time.”
Chloe recalled the crowd being “collectively creative, supportive, proud, and defiant.”
“People were rejecting cultural norms and, together, embracing a new lifestyle,” she said.
“RENEGADE San Francisco: the 1990s” opens with a reception, 5 – 9 p.m. on June 17, at the Schlomer Haus Gallery, 2128 Market Street, in San Francisco. Guests will be able to mingle with Sherman and people who were in her photos. A curated selection of natural wines will be poured by Bottle Bacchanal, a new Castro-based woman-owned wineshop that highlights women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ producers. Music will be spun by DJ Campbell.
