Studio 54, a legendary nightclub in New York City, was the epicenter of elusive celebrity culture in the 1970s, coinciding perfectly with the disco era. The club which operated for three years, from 1977 to 1980 before the two founders Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager were convicted for tax evasion, was notorious for its elite and controversial social gatherings- celebrity guest lists, open drug use, and a velvet rope door policy where Steve Rubell would hand-select his guests. Entry was based on a single criterion. All you had to do was look fabulous! Sexuality, race, gender, and wealth were irrelevant. Once past those ropes, everyone was considered equal.

Brooklyn Museum's exhibit, Studio 54: Magic Night attempts to give viewers a peek into the nightclub's glory days. It captures the overall glamour of Studio 54, as well as the legacy it left behind through a collection of costumes, photographs, drawings, video installations, and more. The photographs presented here delve into similar territory, but from a reimagined perspective. The elusive world of Studio 54 has been reimagined here as a fictional guild by including some of the significant figures from the history of photography in the guest list. The way it has been achieved is by carefully combining elements from photographs of famous photographers like Stephen Shore, Kourtney Roy, Richard Billingham, Jeff Wall, etc to name a few, with existing photographs of Studio 54. The idea is to imagine them in that club environment by not inserting the photographers themself but through their work as it was the work that has defined them as important figures in photography history.