On June 11, 2016, at the Pulse nightclub, a popular bar and dance club for the LGBT community in Orlando, Florida, nearly 300 people were dancing and enjoying themselves during the weekly Saturday event, Latin Night. Shortly after the last call for drinks at 2:00 am on June 12, a gunman stormed into Pulse and armed with a semi-automatic pistol and rifle, killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a terrorist attack/hate crime. It was the second deadliest mass shooting by a single shooter and the deadliest incident of violence against LGBTQ+ people in United States history.
The portrait photographs and text from Dance All Night are re-contextualized from memorial flyers that honored the life of each victim and were part of the large memorial located on the edge of the Pulse nightclub parking lot. Having been part of the memorial site for over a month, the flyers had become severely weathered and deteriorated, showing the marks of physical loss and emotional transformation . The faces in each portrait, which had come from each victims’ social media presence, serve as metaphors of tragedy, loss, remembrance, honor and the power of community.
10 archival pigment prints on Canson Rag Photographique
7 text sheets adapted from flyers honoring each victim on Canson Rag Photographique
Summary statement, diagram of Pulse nighclub interior, colophon and index sheets on Canson Rag Photographique
Chiyogami silkscreened paper covered book binders board with four-flap archival folder