Sadly, this is the last time I — or anyone else, I guess — will be shooting dance parties at Black Cat due to customer complaints.

:/

I say that you pull a Yeasayer and get a whole shit load of people to say they want pictures taken – and all the DJs to say they want photos taken – otherwise half the articles on here will disappear.

And who is complaining? The people POSING FOR THE PICTURES? Or the fatties not being included in the reindeer games?

I disagree.

Three or four people complaining should not take precedence over 150-400 people NOT complaining.

:P

i’m bummed, too. i wanted fitsum to shoot kicks. alas.

i wonder what’s really behind this, because people take pictures on their own all the time. is the cat going to ban cameras? am confused.

Just go ahead and recycle pictures from old dance nights. No one will be the wiser.

I agree with Sexy. If some people feel uncomfortable about it, then it should be banned. People don’t come to the cat (or any other dance party) to have their pictures taken but those who don’t like it might stay away. The after-party fun of picture-lovers doesn’t outweight the loss of fun picture-haters experience during the party.

Personally I don’t care. I only hate when people ( non-pro’s more than the pro’s) take pictures with flash at shows. This is seriously annoying.

Sorry, Fitsum, but I couldn’t have my wife finding out what I might or might not be up to while she is at her bridge club.

Michael – well said, and there have been a number of instances where Joel/Fits/BYT have been asked not to take a picture of someone or to delete a picture of someone and we have always obliged.

I don’t think it matters WHY people don’t like pro’s taking pictures at parties. But I do think it should be respected. Same thing with other activities that are enjoyed by some but are annoying to others.

I also think that byt can do very well without the photo-party blogs. I could imagine that more people would actually appreciate the site for what it has become rather than hate it for how it started off.

nihilistic:
I don’t think it’s your call whether BYT can do with the pics or not. For every tiresome wee anonymite who calls my shots creepy and denegrating (or whatever) there’re probably 3 or 4 people who give kudos. it’s a matter of not looking at what you don’t want to look at.

there were very few times I was actually asked to erase pix; mainly by friends who were either caught wasted or caught cattin’ on their significant others. That’s not really the issue. There were complaints about the way I shoot – which I is no one else’s fault but mine — and things came to a head recently and black cat had to take action. that’s all there is to it.

I think with a little cool down time things will change, and it sounds like that’s the case.

Sorry to play the devil’s advocate, as I said, I am personally indifferent to the photo shooting. However, I know from friends (who don’t necessarily read this site, some never do) that they don’t like it, not because they are in any way afraid of appearing here (I myself usually step out of the way if I see camera approaching) or because they are jealous or anything but because they associate it with hipsterism. In their minds they not only share the space with hipsters (who they dislike) but also have to accept that they celebrate themselves and become more dominant in their presence through the photo shooting. They consider it uncool, shallow, superficial. They are bothered by it simply for atmospheric reasons. Mediatized photo-shooting go against their idea of “subculture” which is what attracts them to places like the cat.

Now, none of them would complain vis-a-vis the management about it but to assume that the only ones who don’t like the presence of pro’s are the few haters who sometimes appear on this site. They are many more out there while the majority is probably indifferent. So we are holding one minority sentiment against another.

On another note, where I come from, camera’s (in general) are banned in most clubs that are really fun. And I am talking about places that are over-loaded with ueber-hipsters. But this is a completly different story.

Nihilistic: that’s a much better explanation but I’d have to say that these friends of yours sound like pretty shitty people (not that they are – that they sound like it). The cat is “subculture”? Maybe the Red Room on a bandless weekday night (when there aren’t any photos), but certainly not during a weekend dance party – I mean the irony there is rich: people showing up to dance with 18 year old college kids to a remix of Nelly and saying the subculture of that is ruined by someone taking pictures?

I’ve drank whisky and beer at the Cat on many a weekday night until the doors were shutting me in and barely stumbled into work the next day. Now if there was someone there taking pictures of the 5 or 10 of us doing that then I’d be pissed, but that’s something I’ve never seen.

There is absolutely nothing subculturish about a dance party at the Cat (upstairs or backstage). Hell there’s not even anything culturish about it.

I’m not a hipster. I don’t even own an iPod.

Michael: the cat is as subculture as it gets in DC. If you don’t like the term, then use indie or alternative. I mean it’s not like that we have tons of choices here… which is part of the problem.

And I never said ruined, I said bothered. Judging my friends based on single opinion or sentiment is something I find pretty shitty. In contrary to you my friends are thoughtful enough to judge people by their actions instead.

This is why I hate arguing on the internet: people read what they want to read instead of what is actually said and then you have to spend an inordinate amount of time away from the original point defending yourself because people don’t pay attention.

“I’d have to say that these friends of yours sound like pretty shitty people (not that they are – that they sound like it)”

I was very careful to word that exactly as it is. I don’t know which friends you’re talking about but from your description I said they sound like they’re shitty – and even further qualified it. Hell I even reiterated the point to ensure it was read before I got some stupid comment about judging people. Weird how that happened anyway.

But now that I think about it, I’d say anyone who judged people they didn’t know based on the fact that some of these people like having pictures to remember their nights by is shitty.

But this Cat as Subculture is strange. Don’t get me wrong – I love the Cat. It’s pretty much the only place I go. But what’s subculture about it? Or Indy or Alternative? I see lawyers in suits drinking there, sorority parties, bachelorette parties, gatherings of Hill doofuses and all other manner of people that wouldn’t fit a “subculture” ore even “indy or alternative” characterization. Is it because there are more people with tattoos than without on some nights? Or is it because the Turbojugend hang out there? Maybe because the staff don’t all wear the same shirts?

Now I do like it because there seem to be more serious drinkers than people who are there to drink Cosmos and end up marrying another lawyer, but there are plenty of those types there.

Granted, I make fun of them, but I’m an asshole elitist because I’m better than everyone else.

The statement was judgmental, no matter how you phrase it. Now, my friends are too but on another basis. As I said before the issue is not people taking pictures per se, but people (pro’s) taking pictures and popularizing them on a regular basis.

The cat carries different subculture characteristics and it does so predominantly. But this is a long discussion and I just read that you hate arguing over the internet. So let’s just say that subculture is many things but not pop.

I think we all need to remember that this is the same place that tried to stop beer showering at Kara’s Evil Disco parties. IT’S EVIL DISCO! come on now…don’t come if you don’t want to get a little debaucherous. It is just more evidence that no matter how much people like BYT try to put DC on the map, there are people who will always try to keep DC the uptight city of snobbery where party people are never welcome. Didn’t the ban Rattler?

ps…can anyone define hipster? 10 bonus points if you can…

i tell you, break your tonearms and come out and play because all the boys and girls come out and dance so freely and gay, john coltrane would say hey hey hey…dolly makes masks we all hide behind…needles search for a different groove..so busta move and come out and say “DK is more than a-okay!”
and while you’re out and about, go to art galleries and ask, “where is Garden Leach?!” “i’m tired of seeing him on the interweb.”

love,
Garden Leach

I came across these comments during a procrastination-fueled random google search of “i hate photographers at dance parties”. the main reason that led me to type those words into the google bar has not yet been raised, so I figured I’d contribute. But please keep in mind that I don’t live in DC, and have no idea exactly what sort of scene is to be found at this place you call the Cat. So although my thoughts might have nothing to do with this particular situation, maybe you’ll find them worth considering. If not, please feel free to ignore.

my problem with the explosion of pro photographers at dance parties is the effect that they can have on the feel of the parties themselves, and the way the crowd functions as a collective mind in response to the music. i’ll unpack that some more, but first let me tell you about why i like to go out to the club.

i love to dance, and i particularly love to dance when i’m surrounded by other people who are dancing with abandon. even when not dancing person-to-person, i still enjoy making eye contact with people around the room, smiling and knowing that we’re all riding the same vibe. In the last, I don’t know, 5 years or so, I’ve been thrilled to see electronic dance music make its way into a more mainstream culture (ie, the “indie” scene), because that’s led to more venues playing it and more events available than there were back in the 90s. Unfortunately, that’s come with a price- when a “scene” becomes easier to find, more people come for a greater variety of reasons (all of them legitimate). so now we’ve got a bunch of people going to dance music events, to hang out with their friends, to be seen, or whatever, who are maybe less passionate about the dancing element of the evening. These are good people, and I have no problem with them personally. The problem, from my perspective, is that their presence dilutes what I love about going out to dance. We’re all decent folk, so I try not to get mad when people stand around talking in the middle of the dancefloor, drinks in hand, oblivious to the fact that they’re occupying prime dance floor real estate. But I can’t deny that, from my point of view, it sucks. I just wait for the moment when they finish their beer and maybe shake their asses for a few minutes before going to get the next one, and enjoy that brief flash of a unified dancefloor.

But once people start dancing, and having a good time, the photographers come, and ruin a good moment. It’s the Heisenberg uncertainty principle at the level of the dancefloor: you can’t observe something without affecting it. The moment the photographer appears, people stop dancing like nobody’s watching, because now somebody *is* watching. That small shift in consciousness when you start dancing for the camera (or, heaven forbid, stop dancing and pose) means you aren’t dancing for the music, or for yourself, or for each other. And that has a very real toll on the collective unity of the dancefloor, and how the dancers relate to the music and the dj and the feel of the moment.

As a dancer myself, I’m not immune to the camera. I don’t seek it out, but when I see someone pointing a lens at me, I respond, even if I don’t want to. I tighten my jaw, thinking that’ll define my features better, or reflect on what angle I’m offering, all automatically. it’s impossible not to. But while I’m doing that, I’ve stopped feeling the music. You can’t lose yourself in the music when the camera has found you. Non-pro photography, like taking pics of your own friends, probably has a similar effect, but seems to have a smaller impact: people you don’t know aren’t taking pictures of you, and a group of friends taking pictures of each other somehow adds an intimate excitement that the pro shots don’t.

wow, this is longer than i expected. i guess i should note that I *do* see the fun in social photography. It’s great to have a document of your night, and I have to admit that I sometimes enjoy checking out the pictures of parties I’ve attended on nickydigital. But I would trade all of that for a camera-free dancing space in a heartbeat.

I’m not the only person I know who feels this way- I have tons of friends who bristle when the photographers walk by, but who are too polite to ever say anything about it. Maybe a compromise could be struck, where the pro-photogs offer their valuable services to people in the more loungey areas of a bar or club, but are more careful not to intrude on the dancefloor? That would satisfy me, but I do recognize that my position here is a very particular one, focused just on the experience of dancing…