Stories
Essay
The Darkroom Has Vanished, and Something Else With It
Amsterdam's gay bars are closing one by one. What do we lose when the scene dissolves into apps and gentrification? On Reguliersdwarsstraat, a man in his sixties leans against a wall, smoking. He watches the street across from him. There used to be Havana there. Now there's a candle shop with forty-euro pillar candles. "It was packed here every Friday," he says to no one in particular. "Now I walk through and recognize nothing anymore." It's a scene playing out across Europe. In Berlin, in London, in Paris. The gay bars are shutting down. The darkrooms are gone. The cruising areas in the park have been cleaned up. And hardly anyone seems to mind. A Silent Exodus The numbers tell the story.…
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The Leather Bar That Vanished, and What Took Its Place
An old gay bar closes, the gym thrives. What does that say about us? An essay on lost places and new rituals. On a rainy Tuesday evening…