queuepoints.com
John Crooms and the Archival Power of Atlanta’s Black Music Nightlife
John Crooms (Credit: Steve West) Atlanta photographer John Crooms has spent over three decades documenting the city's Black music nightlife. Beginning his work in the early 1990s, Crooms captured the city as it was growing in prominence during a period of analog photography, shooting film and using one-hour photo labs to distribute prints directly to partygoers. Transitioning to fully digital formats in the 2000s, he’s created an archive that traces the evolution of the local music scene well before smartphones became ubiquitous. Reviewing his analog negatives today remains an emotionally draining process, yet it consistently reveals candid moments of current cultural figures before they gained prominence. "I know I'm in the right spot if John Crooms is there, and I feel like John Crooms is always there, so I always feel like I'm definitely in the right spot." — Jay Ray The live music and party experience has fundamentally changed since Crooms began his work. Attendees often prioritize capturing video clips on their phones for social media over experiencing the event in real time. Crooms approaches his photography with a historical focus, aiming to verify the cultural moments that define the city rather than acting as a promotional influencer. Early on, however, partygoers and artists were often resistant to cameras, requiring photographers to operate carefully within intimate spaces. "Photographers and what I've noticed, you all have to strike this balance of being seen, but mostly being stealth, especially when you're working and because you don't wanna take away from what is happening." — DJ Sir Daniel Group Shot from Queue Points Live 2023 (Credit: John Crooms) There isn’t an underground scene in Atlanta that Crooms hasn’t navigated. Despite that, he’s often favored the environment of house music spaces over the mainstream rap scene. He deliberately avoided the strict access politics, gatekeeping, and door drama frequently associated with hip-hop events during that era. House events provided a welcoming atmosphere where he could connect with and photograph attendees. This respect for boundaries meant honoring requests from individuals who did not want to be photographed, even if those individuals later realized they had accidentally written themselves out of part of the city's cultural history. "I'm tired of dealing with the drama, I'm tired of making the phone calls... And you go into the house events, and it's a little bit more welcoming. Less door drama, less politics, less, you know, able to make a connection..." — John Crooms While Crooms prefers house music events, he discusses intersections between musical and nightlife genres with Queue Points. He discusses how early hip-hop tracks, such as The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", functioned structurally as disco records. The visual aesthetics of early hip-hop acts, such as Grandmaster Flash, drew directly from Afrofuturism and radical Black fashion of funk musicians like George Clinton's P-Funk and Sly Stone. Crooms connects this lineage to modern artists like Future and Lil Yachty, who adopt rock-inspired aesthetics that echo the fashion cycles of earlier decades. He also acknowledges the foundational influence of Larry Levan and New York's Paradise Garage, a venue that served as a blueprint for dance music culture. Atlanta is a long-standing Black music hub that relied on independent artist infrastructure. The city’s creative ecosystem includes independent radio stations such as WCLK and WRFG, record stores such as EarWax Records and Moods Music, and venues such as Club Kaya and Yin Yang Cafe. The influx of students to the Atlanta University Center catalyzed this growth and constant evolution by bringing thousands of Black youth from across the country to share regional music via cassette tapes during holiday breaks. This cross-pollination provided the necessary foundation for the explosion of Southern hip-hop. This communal foundation is one of the things that allowed Crooms to co-organize "A Great Day in Atlanta" with Kemi Bennings. Inspired by DJ Jazzy Jeff's visit to the city, Crooms and Bennings gathered local DJs, artists, and spoken-word poets for a massive group photograph in 2003, choosing the Woodruff Library for its proximity to WCLK. Without the aid of social media, Crooms relied strictly on word-of-mouth coordination. He successfully executed the archival project again in 2013 and 2023, establishing a visual timeline of the city’s evolving creative class. Crooms' work documenting Atlanta's Black music scene is an important record of a city in constant motion. His images chronicle the evolution of nightlife and musical communities. It also serves as an evolving archive for future generations. Through his lens, Atlanta's cultural legacy is accessible, and it reminds us of photography's power to preserve the stories that shape our collective memory.Listen To This Episode Editor's Note: Blog post was developed using AI assistance to repurpose content from our original episode, "John Crooms on Archiving Atlanta's Black Music Nightlife," and was subsequently reviewed, fact-checked, and edited by the Queue Points team to ensure accuracy and voice.
