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Focus On The Family

GreatPartyPics.com - the Circuit's Online Photo Albums

Written by Jeffery Taylor

Parzh and August. That’s how they are known to partygoers, promoters, and nightlife celebutants around the world. These two inveterate travelers are the masterminds behind GreatPartyPics.com, the massive online photo repository of the hottest men from the hottest parties and Circuit events around the country. Since 2002, the website has grown to include over 30,000 pictures, and has received millions of hits by visitors in over 109 countries and in all 50 states. Their pictures have frequently been published in noiZe (and previously Circuit Noize) as well as other publications.

The whole venture began as something the pair had wanted to do so that everyone could partake in their adventures on the Circuit, explains Parzh, who lives with his partner August in South Beach: “I wanted to have a way of showing what we get to see and do.” The two busy professionals by day love to spend their off-hours enjoying the camaraderie of the many bars and clubs of South Florida—as well as the communal energy of Circuit events.

For Parzh, it all started when he left his hometown in Oklahoma to visit his gay uncle in the big city: “The day I turned 21, my life changed. My uncle in New York City gave me an open invitation to stay with him whenever I wished, so I took him up on it. I would visit him once or twice a month.”

On these visits, Parzh first became acquainted with Clubland. Frequenting such clubs as Palladium, Tunnel, Limelight, and Sound Factory, Parzh was hooked. “I loved the music and how everyone was having a great time,” he says.

When he graduated in 1994 with an MBA, he moved to Fort Lauderdale but also bought a condo in South Beach for the weekends. He started going out to all the clubs and bars, and before long everyone knew who he was.

August Cook grew up in Missouri and attended university in Kansas for seven years. “When I graduated, I said, ‘Get me out of these cornfields!‘” So he went to Chicago. In July 1991, after three years of braving the Windy City’s brutal winters, August moved to Miami.
“At the time, I didn’t realize how hip it was. When I got down here, I was just flabbergasted,” says August. “It took me a year to adjust to how decadent and wild and fun it was. I didn’t know there was a lifestyle like that at all. In Chicago, when it’s wintertime, they don’t really go out and do much.” Over the next few years, August became friends with many of the club promoters in South Beach.

Partners in Life

In 1996, Parzh and August met during Winter Party Festival in Miami and hit it off immediately. At the time, August was living in Ormond Beach developing several high-rise timeshare buildings. “We both had so much in common,” Parzh remembers. For the next two years, they kept in contact and saw each other at Circuit events.

On April 17, 1998, Parzh received a call from August saying that he had moved back to South Beach. “We went out that night, and I got to meet all of his friends,” recalls Parzh. “That night we skipped several steps, and by that morning we became partners. All of our friends were shocked, especially since I had never dated anyone.”

August moved his architectural design company, August Cook Design, to South Beach and worked on several high-profile projects. One year later, they bought a house on North Bay Road, where they still live. “Parzh was funny,” says August. “When we bought our house, he said it had to be walking distance to Salvation.”

At the time, Salvation was the place to be on Saturday nights. With Abel spinning what would become his signature tribal beats; Power Infiniti serving up the fiercest shows in town; and hundreds of shirtless, chiseled Miami boys on the dance floor, it’s easy to understand that “Criterion No. 1” for their new home was proximity to the legendary club.

Nightlife became a major part of their lives together. The couple started to become known for hosting parties of their own at home, including birthday parties for Power, Salvation promoter Mike Mazer, and Kitty Meow; and their infamous Christmas parties. They became bold-faced fixtures of The Wire, the local bar weekly. They faithfully checked every issue to see if they had made it in, which led to collecting photo albums. One of the editors at The Wire gave Parzh a camera and told him to point and shoot at everything in sight.

Partners in Photography

Which they did. “My life changed forever,” Parzh says. Every week, he and August snapped hundreds of photos for The Wire. While Parzh worked behind the camera, August arranged the boys. “One little secret that the club owners and promoters learned was that the drunker I was, the more pictures I’d take,” says Parzh. No surprise that the drinks kept flowing.

Finally in 2002, thousands of photos later, Parzh and August purchased the domain name GreatPartyPics.com. With limited knowledge of the tech side, they managed to cobble together a free site so people could see themselves and their friends and relive magic moments on the dance floor.

“It was something I wanted to do for everyone to enjoy,” says Parzh. “I felt like I was doing this for the community.” He prides himself on the inclusive nature of their site. “Our pictures are not always just the hot guys. We’ve got everybody. Everyone wants to see his picture. It makes them feel good.”

Because they both have professional careers, they would upload new pictures to the website in their spare time. Often it took a few weeks, since Parzh wanted to make sure that he didn’t inadvertently show someone doing something—ahem!—inappropriate.

This attention to detail and decency led to their being among the first external photographers allowed into Montreal’s Black & Blue. They also became sponsors of Winter Party, White Party, and One Mighty Weekend.

In May of this year, Parzh’s brother Pezh took over as webmaster and completely redesigned their website, GreatPartyPics.com. They’ve since received numerous compliments and awards. They are now able to post all photos within a week of an event.

Though GreatPartyPics.com is still free, a $9.95 yearly subscription allows members to download high-res, full-sized, and professionally touched-up photos without the GreatPartyPics.com logo. Members also have full access to all of the photos; the free galleries only contain a subset of the pictures.

Parzh and August have also begun soliciting advertisers in three categories, including party sponsorships. The site, however, remains very much a labor of love. 

They’ve met people from all over the world and delight in introducing friends to each other. Two guys they put together for a picture at Winter Party three years ago ended up in a relationship. “That’s how they met!” Parzh boasts. “And they’ve been together ever since!”

At this point, they have become so well known that boys approach them to have their pictures taken for the site, which Parzh calls “a living scrapbook. I have a photo album of our friends growing up,” he wistfully remarks. “Or growing big!” adds August. They both break out in laughter.

Like some of their friends’ waistlines, GreatPartyPics.com continues to expand with no end in sight.

Reader Comments

I was reading your calender events and you don’t have New England Pride at 6 flags posted up and it’s Sept 20 th

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