Last Night’s Party

Merlin Bronques made party photography iconic. His website, LastNightsParty, documented the New York underground so precisely it became the template—photographers tried copying him, parties got wilder just to make his feed, the whole scene hyperaware of the lens. He published a book of the photos in 2006. Then he moved to video. LastNightsParty.tv started rolling films where you could actually see the wreckage move, opening with a short called Ruff Night.

I remember feeling jealous watching those early uploads. Not envious exactly—more like recognizing I was on the wrong continent. Berlin was too clean, too safe. Everything here was organized. And Bronques was capturing drunk models, genuine junkies, rich kids playing hip-hop in Brooklyn. The mess was real.

So I’d watch with popcorn and Coke, seeing girls throw up, watching people genuinely destroyed, watching the whole carousel. The odd part was I never actually wanted to be there. I was fine right here in Berlin, watching from a distance. That distance felt like the real luxury.