Teddy Fitzhugh captures seven years’ worth of British nightlife in his fantastic series

In photographer Teddy Fitzhugh’s series Club Archive, he presents British nightlife in full, unabashed, youthful swing. Captured over seven years, the images celebrate the style, individuality and music of English clubbing culture through brash, monochrome snapshots. “[The series] started when I first moved to London and was shooting parties and gigs for a couple of magazines, which eventually led me to shoot for a handful of DJs and promoters,” Teddy explains. “I found clubs to be a unique environment. Beyond enjoying the music, it was the revolving cast of characters, styles and mini-narratives that kept me coming back to make images.”

Many of the images were shot at Benji B’s monthly club night Deviation at XOYO in east London, as well as other nights from Numbers, LuckyMe, Black Atlantic and Earnest Endeavours. Throughout the series we see flashes of bra straps, sweaty heads of drooping hair and gyrating, rhythmic limbs all encapsulating the movement and ease found in that kind of heady environment. “There’s a sense of escapism and hedonism that’s unique to British nightlife. It’s one ultimately of joy and community but it also comes with undertones of tension,” says Teddy. “Both of these sides come through in the physicality of the crowd, which I was always interested in capturing.” 

The changes in fashion are subtle, but this feeling of youth and vitality is constant with the age of Teddy’s subjects barely changing from year to year. The black and white images add a beautiful tonal quality and heighten that close atmosphere. But the absence of colour also allows Teddy to “bring these images together as a series and give them a sense of neutrality.”

There’s a lovely realness to the New York-based Teddy’s work and it’s all due to his ability to capture his subjects completely lost in the music. “Though the artists aren’t featured in this series, they were the main focus at play in all of the images. The music dictates the rhythm and pulse of the room, so I was able to intuitively predict and capture moments with the flash of a strobe.”