Up-and-coming Denver nightlife photographer Shadows Gather is, as they’re saying, having a moment. Her newest exhibit, Nightcap, is set to debut on March 20 at Pon Pon Bar, a local cozy, quirky cocktail bar and art gallery in RiNo. The curated gallery will span from 2019, when Shadows Gather first began documenting Denver’s DIY, queer, punk, and goth nightlife, to now.
Shadows Gather’s moment, as they’re saying, is really more like a series of big moments throughout the past year. Around this time last year, her work was shown at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station in Denver, where it caught the attention of Dazed once in March and again in a December retrospective. Later on in the year, her photography was also featured in an exhibit at at East Window, an intersectional art gallery in Boulder. Nightcap is an abridged version of the East Window exhibit, The Archives 2019-Current.
The photographs, ranging from intimate, close-up, raw headshots to wild, fog-and-laser-filled action shots, encapsulate the sometimes raucous and always fabulous underground nightlife scene bubbling under the surface of the Mile High City. Shadows Gather’s modus operandi when it comes to shooting these striking compositions is to use instant cameras and an iPhone flashlight. “Instant film, there’s not a filter on it. You’re getting people’s true selves,” she told Colorado Public Radio in an interview.
Each photo she takes effortlessly lays bare the fashions of alternative culture and its patrons as they come together as a community. One thing about queer people, we know better than anyone else how to serve looks and party. The works of Shadows Gather capture the beauty, creativity, and camaraderie of the queer community in Denver when everyone gets together for alt drag shows and DIY punk shows in grungy warehouses and hole-in-the-wall venues. Nightcap may be the moment Shadows Gather is having right now, but trust us when we say there are more, so many more, to come.
Nightcap will be shown at Pon Pon for free from March 20 until May 3 during regular business hours. “Guests are encouraged to encounter the art naturally while ordering a drink, talking with friends, or passing through the room,” reads the press release.
Photo courtesy of social media
