The clubbing archive
A screen grab on the new site, a place for all my clubbing images going forward. it is at https://nathanphotoclubbing.myportfolio.com
Hello, welcome and as you can see, I have now set up the NathanPhoto Clubbing archive website.
This will contain imagery, thoughts and memories from my time in clubland. So let me start with a little backstory for you.
I started out in clubs in about 1992, picking up occasional jobs then started properly in about 1994, progressing to working almost every weekend in about 1996 up until just before Covid in 2019, that’s quite a few years of work, which at the height would be about 6 to 8 clubs per week.
In the days of film, around 1994 to 2002 it was made, mostly on print but I did quite a lot on transparency work (slide) of which because there is only one copy, they are lost, as either they’ve been binned or the magazines still have them.
I moved over to digital in 2002, at first using cropped sensors which was initially claustrophobic, sorted by switching to a 16mm lens. Then I moved up digitally until what I thought was a break in 2019 as I started my Masters. Then when Covid struck that turned into retirement, although, that may have changed with last Fridays return!
The archive consists of many unseen images as when working a club on film it could be made on a couple of rolls, 36 per roll and only one would be published, possibly two. If the club was for a magazine, then maybe 10-15 would get in, then I would use more rolls to get that. When digital came along that number expanded and now, we are talking in the region of 100/200 for a small night. Then 300 for a medium sized club, possibly up to 3000 on the bigger nights. Edited and sent the next day so some gems were missed at that time. This leaves me with an unseen archive of club pictures.
At this time I was working commercially and seeing how some frowned upon photographers doing weddings, I wonder if they would look down on the club work as not valid? Funny cause I saw many of those people in the clubs, maybe they didn’t want to be reminded of that. It really was a dual life back then.
In order to share my thoughts and club images now I’ve brought it all under the NathanPhoto banner, as people need a name and a character to put to the images.
As said, I have a few worries/issues in sharing the archive though and some of these concerns have been in the news of late.
Firstly in regards to the ethics involved in the sharing of these pictures, which could possibly be seen as exploitative. I know other photographers don’t care about exploiting people who have been drinking in public spaces but seemingly I am different. Mainly cause I photographed people inside the clubs and I much preferred to make good, (nice?) pictures than ones when you laugh at the people in them.
I also question what the value is of sharing these pictures for clicks and likes nostalgia, rather than say for research or something of higher value. I’d rather be adding something to the discussion rather than taking cheap hits.
Secondly, I saw a segment on people being filmed without their consent, something which has happened to me as well. This particular case was on Morning Live on the BBC on the 18-02-26. It showed Michael Peacock’s experiences of being filmed without his consent and then being subjected to all sorts of nastiness online.
It got me thinking, could my images be used in that way?
Also in the news are the Deansgate perverts filming people leaving the clubs, and as I always sought out consent for making an image it does make you think about the usage, exploitation of women for the male gaze and just in general being creepy.
I did mainly photograph women as that what was the promoters and the editors asked for so that’s what I did. This has many issues now but at the time I did always ask peoples permissions but of course that 20/15/10+ years ago. A lot has happened in that time, so one verbal ‘yes, no problem…’ would not be sufficient to cover today’s usage or thinking. Another layer to the dilemma is that I also photographed many Gay clubs for many years, working for a number of titles, Gay Times, Attitude, APN and Pink paper so I do have a mix in the archive.
Straight wise I worked mainly for CityLife, M.E.N, although I did a few for Mixmag and DJ but mainly for the clubs as the web took off for promoting pictures.
There is also the right to be forgotten. In the archive I have celebs, MPs, lawyers, teachers, mothers, fathers etc. etc. And while many may not mind, there could be a few that do and then the images could be used against them. Once you let the image out, it is out there!
I believe there needs to be careful consideration of the image, primarily of whether to show identities or not. One way round this was to disguise people with a little round ‘sticker’ to protect privacy/identity. I have a section on the site where some of the more embarrassing/risqué pictures live. This contains images that photographically may be quite good but possibly the people have been caught perhaps not at their best or in an unflattering light.
Also I do know some of the people in the images I would guess about 5% so that means that I have about 95% of unknowns in this 10+million image archive. I have shared some images with those I know and many have said that they don’t mind, but what about the ones that do? It’s very difficult to know what will happen in advance, what happens if the manosphere gets hold of pictures of their relatives or worse if it could be used against someone’s job?
I would hate my pictures to be used in that way.
I do all of this to shape future discussions about the value of images that aren’t flattering, the cruel eye that seems to run through the white patriarchal, capitalist, colonial photography that has shaped the medium. Also I want to question the right to be seen, to be forgotten or to be published as well as the sanctity of privacy from your youth.
This is because we live in a cruel world where people look to use images against others and until we have a more balanced world then a lot of these images will stay unpublished. I would hate my images to add to that cruelty.
I know some will not agree and that’s ok. As I think this debate will run on and on. I’m not planning on putting everything on the site, I will publish some of the unseen ones, as well as thoughts like these, possibly the thoughts I have about my whole archive.
There you go.
Thanks for reading my thoughts and please if you anything you have read leads to question then give me a shout, same if you just have thoughts.
Contributions welcome.
Have a look it’s at: https://nathanphotoclubbing.myportfolio.com