Voguing and the Ballroom Scene of New York 1989-92: Photographs by Chantal Regnault

Harlem’s gay ball subculture of the late 1980s is superbly documented in this trove of previously unseen photographs. Paris Is Burning documented a gay ballroom scene that emerged in Harlem in the mid-1980s, which drew African American and Latino gay and transgender communities to compete against one another for their dancing skills, the verisimilitude of their drag and their ability to walk on the runway. A visual riot of fashion, polysexuality and subversive style, Voguing and the Ballroom Scene of New York 1989–1992 is also an extraordinary document on sexuality and race. FROM THE BOOK "Growing out of the drag queen ritual of throwing 'shade', or subtly insulting another queen, voguing emerged as a distinctive dance of first the houses and then, inevitably, the balls, where specific voguing categories were eventually introduced. 'It all started at an after hours club called Footsteps on 2nd Avenue and 14th Street,' says David DePino, an influential DJ for the voguing community. 'Pa