Haute Night's Behind The Rope Series With: Nightlife Photographer Of The Year, Kirill Bichutsky

Part 1: Before Kirill Was There Earlier that day I made my way to Kirill’s apartment to meet for our interview. We had crossed paths at parties before, but I had never actually hung out with him one-on-one. Though through his constant status updates and tweets he makes you feel like you know him on a personal level. The way he has connected with his fans seems to be a big part of his success. As I entered Kirill’s apartment, him and his roommate are in the process of hanging one of his prints on a wall in their living room. The picture, from a day glo paint party from A-Trak’s most recent tour, depicts crowd of partygoers covered in glow in the dark paint. A girl propped up on her friend’s shoulders is featured prominently. She has a look of sheer joy on her face, like for that one moment she doesn’t have a care in the world: His bedroom walls are covered in comedy memorabilia. A poster for Colin Quinn’s short lived TV show “Tough Crowd” hangs over his bed, remnants of his days doing graphic design for comedy clubs. He talks about being raised by conservative well educated Russian immigrants (both his parents have engineering degrees) in New Jersey, after emigrating from Russia when he was 6 years old. It was clear he was artistic from a very young age. “ I was always drawing” He tells me. “My goal my whole life, until I was 20 years old was to be a Disney animator.” Immediately, I get visions of Cinderella receiving a champagne facial or Snow White flashing the seven dwarfs. It’s ironic that the preeminent documenter of debauchery in New York City started out wanting to draw children’s cartoons.