In the mid-1990s, Peter Gatien owned four mega clubs in New York CIty: Limelight, Tunnel, Club USA, and Palladium, as photographer Steve Eichner tells Rolling Stone, he worked for the King of Clubland as the house photographer: “Up all night going from club to club, photographing celebrities at play to be published worldwide and garner publicity for his club empire. He believed in throwing the best parties by promoting diversity and nurturing creativity in music, art, sexuality, and design.”
In the new book, In the Limelight, Eichner collects electric photos of this scene — some never seen before now — as well as the other clubs that have all disappeared: The Roxy, Quick, Reins, and Glamorama. Here we see Club Kid Michael Alig’s notorious Disco 2000 parties a well as alternative and hip-hop artists enjoying themselves along with a kaleidoscope of nightlife denizens. As the book’s editor, Gabriel H. Sanchez, explains in the introduction: “Sexuality was celebrated in all of its colorful forms and without judgment. In these clubs, every breed of New Yorker — from candy-eyed ravers to Wall Street suits — intermingled with respect and longing for an unforgettable night.”