Eyes to SEA: A Curious World
John Simone's Photographic Voyages

A Feature Artist Presentation:
Nuit Rose Festival 2026: REWILDING

Opening June 18th - until July 5th
Youngplace Art Centre - 180 Shaw St, Toronto

Exhibition Statement

This exhibition is what happened when I left the nightclub
and stepped out into the world.

In the 1980s, I photographed New York nightlife—club kids, celebrities,
beautiful chaos, and the theatre of being seen. It was a sealed ecosystem:
exaggerated, performative, and completely convincing while you were inside it.

Years later, I went looking again—this time across more than 50 countries,
without a scene to belong to and without knowing what I was looking for.

What I found wasn’t so different.

A curious world, where the sacred and the strange sit comfortably side by side.
Where devotion, decoration, humour, and spectacle blur into one continuous
performance—sometimes intentional, sometimes not.

A carved figure, a storefront display, a gesture between strangers—each operating
with its own logic, its own sense of importance, its own quiet absurdity.

The boundaries begin to slip: between reverence and play, nature and artifice,
history and now. Things start to feel familiar for reasons you can’t quite explain.

Eyes to SEA brings together 300 photographs from a much larger archive,
installed as a continuous visual field. There is no fixed path—only a rhythm of looking,
noticing, and connecting.

The curatorial framework, developed with Kelly McCray, establishes the structure.
The final selections and installation extend that framework through intuition,
association, and instinct.

I’m not interested in capturing the world.
I’m interested in catching it in the act—just before it explains itself.

Welcome to
John Simone Photography

Featuring over 5,000 80's New York Nightlife Photos
All 9,200 Nightlife Photos in 450 Contact Sheets

1000's of Exotic World Travel Photos
1980's Details Magazine Tear-sheets
230 Toronto Social Columns
and Original Web Projects

Photocyclopedia of 80's New York Nightlife

Feature New York Legend Albums and
Celebrity/Nightlife A-Z Albums
by John Simone Photography

Click to view RuPaul:

Click to view Sister Dimension:

Click to view Leigh Bowery:

Click to view Lady Bunny:

Click to view Michael Musto:

Click to view A Files:

Click to view B Files:

Click to view C Files:

Click to view D Files:

Click to view E-F-G Files:

Click to view H-I Files:

Click to view J Files:

Click to view K Files:

Click to view L Files:

Click to view M Files:

Click to view N Files:

Click to view R Files:

Click to view S Files:

Click to view T-Z Files:

Click to view James St. James:

Click to view Susanne Bartsch:

Click to view It Twins:

Click to view Nanzi Zipkin:

Click to view International Chrysis:

Click to view Julie Jewels:

Click to view Michael Alig:

Click to view Larry Tee:

Click to view Goldy Loxx:

Click to view Miss Perfidia:

Click to view Joey Arias:

Click to view:

Click to view Denise Stoughton:

Click to view Downtown People:

jetsetjohnny.ca
Exotic World Travel
John Simone Photography

Simone spent 5 years traveling
to over 80 countries as Senior Photographer
and Photography Teacher on Princess Cruises

These are the first Forty-four cities posted - with more to follow

Click to View any city to visit on John Simone Photography's jetsetjohnny.ca: