‘Backstreet: The Atlanta Dance Club Retrospective’
Opens May 15, 7-11 p.m.
Runs through June 15
Art Space International
1192 Huff Road NW
404-351-0549 www.artspaceatl.com
The first time Darrel Erickson visited the former gay club Backstreet, he discovered there was no point in wearing a watch to a place where time didn’t exist.
“The thing that sticks out the most about that night, or about Backstreet in general, is walking out into the parking lot and being absolutely shocked and overwhelmed by this big, bright sun,” Erickson recalls of that Saturday morning in February 1992.
“We were drinking, and dancing, and mingling all night and all morning, and I had no idea what time it was, and then — bam, there’s that sun,” he says. “From then on, I never wanted to wear a watch [at Backstreet] because it would be so fun to be lost in the time.”
As a 24-hour nightclub, Backstreet defied the constraints of time for 30 years before it was forced to close in 2004. In less than four short years since, the iconic three-level dancehall is on the verge of being forgotten, or becoming entirely unfamiliar to Atlanta’s recent gay arrivals.
Photographer Marti Griffin captures flashes of Backstreet’s timelessness in a new exhibit at the Art Space International gallery from May 15 to June 15. The exhibit, “Backstreet: The Atlanta Dance Club Retrospective,” features about 30 previously unpublished images of Backstreet — from the heart of the party, to down time at the 24-hour club.
GRIFFIN’S COLLECTION OF BACKSTREET PHOTOS explodes in a virtual rainbow of electric colors — sweltering yellows and reds, cooling blues, and neon glow-in-the-dark body paint. Whether depicting a performer bathed in sunshine-like light on stage, or peering down on the dance floor as magenta spotlights crisscross a huge crowd, Griffin’s photos make it clear that the lighting at Backstreet was an essential part of every party.
“We did a lot of stuff with [the club] empty with really cool lighting,” Griffin says of her work with former Backstreet lighting director Pete McHugh.
The lights in Griffin’s pictures also contribute to the exhibit’s — and Backstreet’s — other defining attribute: energy. The combination of the dim atmosphere in Backstreet with Griffin’s use of a slow shutter speed on her camera makes kinetic trails burst from the images.
As historic markers of a historic venue, the movement in Griffin’s photos tells the story of Backstreet far more accurately than photos of people posing for snapshots.
“It was fun, fun, fun — good times and letting yourself loose,” Griffin says. “Many of the photos are just people having fun — a lot of the 5 a.m. guys with their shirts off having a really great time.”
But the exhibit also shows a few sides of Backstreet that might be new to even former weekend regulars. Backstage shots of McHugh working the lights, and images of bright color circles covering an empty dance floor, are a calm reminder that the 24-hour club didn’t have the same energy at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday that it did during its legendary weekend nights.
Photo by Marti Griffin from ‘Backstreet: The Atlanta Dance Club Retrospective’
Griffin, who is heterosexual, first visited Backstreet in the mid-’90s while preparing to shoot a CD cover for Intersound Record’s “Dancing” series.
“We were talking about where to do that shoot, and everybody said Backstreet because that was the best place in town,” says Griffin, who was later hired by Backstreet’s owners to take photos for brochures and the club’s website.
“They never did use the images,” she says. “They’ve just been sitting around forever.”
About three months ago, Frederic Payet, owner of Art Space International, approached Griffin about compiling her photos into an exhibit. The photographer is hoping former Backstreet performers such as Charlie Brown and Shawnna Brooks attend the May 15 opening to help inspire a club-like atmosphere.
“What I’m hoping is a lot of people who haven’t seen some friends in a long time will show up and reminisce,” says Griffin, who realizes that a good number of gay Atlantans could also be discovering Backstreet for the first time.
HANGING WITH A GROUP OF FRIENDS in Midtown, Ben Cater moved from Philadelphia to Atlanta two years ago and never heard of Backstreet until asked by a reporter on Monday.
“What’s Backstreet?” Cater, 26, asked, prompting ridicule from his friend Drew Simon, 23. An Atlanta native, Simon heard lore about Backstreet as a teenager, but, like Cater, he never experienced the inside of Atlanta’s most famous gay club.
“I felt so gypped when it closed,” Simon says. “I had always heard about how much fun it was and didn’t expect it to be gone by the time I was old enough to go there.”
As a new mold of residents began occupying Midtown, and Backstreet became known as a sure-fire place to score drugs, city officials and neighborhood activists worked tirelessly to shut down the club, eventually succeeding in July 2004. The city outlawed all 24-hour private nightclubs, killing the infamous round-the-clock party scene that put Atlanta on the gay nightlife map and ensuring that there will never be another gay club like Backstreet.
None of Griffin’s photos depict the darker, self-destructive elements that led to Backstreet’s demise, as that is not how she remembers the club.
“I don’t feel that way about it — I feel it was a wonderful place to go, and what an experience,” Griffin says.
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