From an article by Tyler Akers for Gayletter:
Meryl Meisler had a front row seat to the disco boom. She remembers, “When the scene hit it was my cup of tea.” After studying photography in Wisconsin, she moved back to New York in 1975 just as a new club culture was taking hold. “I was not a ground breaker. I felt lucky. I was standing on the shoulders of the people before me,” she says of coming out that same year on April 1, “and I’ve always had a queer eye.” Meisler’s early photos draw on the Long Island of her upbringing, giving images of her family members and friends a campy yet intimate charm. Through her lens, wedding halls, living rooms, and beauty shops in North Massapequa become offbeat playgrounds of Borscht Belt humor. Her parents, Jack and Sunny, founded a group called the “The Mystery Club” of about a dozen couples who would take turns planning a mystery night out every month. Meisler enjoyed hearing about their escapades including trips to a nudist colony, fencing lessons, a séance, and going to the Gay Continental Baths. The club members were among her early subjects. But when she began shooting queer underground discos in 1977, her sensibility had met its ultimate subject.