Haitian Beatz

Chantal Regnault is the photographer behind the images in Voguing and the Ballroom Scene of New

York 1989-1992, a new publication by Soul Jazz Records. She talks about her days behind the lens alongside some of Harlem's most vibrant performers

Tell us about yourself:

I'm Chantal Regnault. I was born in France and settled in New York in 1971. It's still my base 40 years later, even though I moved to Port-au-Prince in Haiti in 1994 and kept residence there until the January 2010 earthquake kicked me back to New York. I was among the lucky ones who only lost their home and still had a place to go. Literature was my academic background, but wild 1970s New York triggered the switch to photography: the energy on the streets, the people, their diversity, their free style and originality were particularly inspirational. As the city seemed to be on the brink of financial and physical collapse (Abe Beam used to say "I am the Mayor of 10,000 potholes"), the art scene was booming. Hip-hop culture was in the making, street style lead fashion, there was break-dancing and graffiti, first on walls and trains and eventually in art galleries. That's what got me started and I documented emerging urban subcultures for many years.

How did find out about and come to photograph voguing?

In 1988 the Village Voice published a couple of breaking articles, Venus Envy by Donald Suggs and The world According to Vogue by Scott Poulson Bryant. Both were a great introduction to the black and Latino gay ballroom circuit, out of which come a new style of club dancing called voguing, which was spotted in 1989 and 1990, when iconic performers such as Malcolm Mclaren, Blondie and Madonna brought it into the mainstream spotlight. Even more intriguing was the network of "houses" who were competing at the balls. They were both surrogate families for gay kids who had been kicked out by their biological families, and gatherings of talented indivduals geared towards fashion, style and glamour, mirroring the great houses of couture. These places were a haven of tolerance, freedom and self-expression for an expanding rainbow of sexual identities. I was soon able to track the next function, as a house ball was called. And once you got to one, you were informed on the spot of when