New York photographer Quentin Belt is not a faceless fixture in the nightlife scene. He arrived in the city one summer weekend in 2010 and never left, though you wouldn’t have heard him call himself a photographer back then. Since the heyday of the club Santos Party House and his hand in the inception of queer performance night Mustache Mondays, Belt has caught the gaze of many recognizable Downtown darlings on his (now preferably disposable) film camera, forever immortalizing the cream of the art sex and historic party pantheon of our cursed era. Lusty pizza nights. VMA after-parties. Glamorous gossip groupies. Ubers and Prada. Eyebrowless elites. Anderson Cooper? A medley of Instagram and fond memories of venues past making their way across the pages of publications like Interview.

Despite his love for documenting the new energy of those spiraling ever upwards around him—Quentin, 36 years old, prefers to capture the candid moment without getting caught up in the shadow side of fleeting friendships and superficial niceties that often comes with the party life. A Tenchi Muyo! (a nineties Japanese anime series) and Kanye fan who has taken to the world of recharged solitude and sobriety since the onset of the pandemic, he’s been reflecting much on the ascent of his peers and his growth, as well as another direction for himself. “During the time I got sober, my focus switched from the idea of who I was to who I really am. That was a turning point for me,” Belt says. “Even though people know me as a photographer, I’d eventually like to be an actor or comedian at some point.” Between New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Berlin, his core community belongs to an extended family of artists and designers. “The thing that keeps me going is watching the people I care about succeed. Right now, I’m celebrating being [a part of] the DIY momentum that’s happening.”