Swindells started taking photographs while at university in Sheffield, inspired by a 1982 exhibition of Derek Ridgers’s nightclub portraits at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. After graduating, he moved to London and got a bar job in a club which he later got fired from for taking pictures. In 1985, he started taking club portraits. Since the early 80’s Dave Swindells has been documenting London’s most influential club, rave scenes and nightlife. As Time Out Clubs Editor from 1986 – 2009 he had exclusive access to nightlife and its shifts in youth culture, styles and attitudes. Dave Swindells captured on film what it meant to be raving during the late 80s and 90s. Starting off by taking sly photos on the dancefloor instead of working behind the bar, he quickly moved up in the world of nightlife press. Swindells remained Time Out’s Nightlife editor for over two decades, getting not only an insight into capital rave scenes over time but experiencing first-hand the birth of acid house.

In the case of acid house, overwhelming numbers of clubgoers defying the police to dance all night at huge, illegal parties eventually led after new laws failed to contain them to a gradual loosening of the draconian restrictions on both club opening hours and the sale and consumption of alcohol in the UK. These characteristics have also made the nightlife scene hard to record. There are technical issues for photographers in clubs, but also issues of trust. Swindells has been able to take candid pictures in clubs like Shoom because he made himself part of the culture by turning up night after night, year after year, bearing witness without ever being intrusive.

This is a mood board of my favourite Dave Swindells images. I have chosen these images because I like how there is a mixed variation of images, for example there are people who are posing and looking at the camera but there are also people that haven’t acknowledged it. These images show nightlife through the 80s and 90s and to me show a large difference is culture, fashion and styles from then compared to now, for example the hairstyles, outfits and behaviours. These are things you wouldn’t see in the youth culture now in clubs therefore I want to contrast this and show my own version of the youth culture nightlife in my photoshoot projects.

I have chosen to analyse this image of a man in a crowd of people who stands out from the other people. He is in the centre of the image making him the focus, also the bright pink jumper he is wearing makes him stand out compared to the crowd of everyone else wearing white and black. Another thing that stands out in this image is that everyone in this image is wearing denim jeans, this shows a large amount of the fashion at the time. To me this image represents the youth culture and fun during the 80s and 90s nightlife scene.

This image is of a group of people who are raving and partying in a nightclub. this image is different from the other one as the people have acknowledged the camera and are smiling at it. I liked this difference from some of the other images because it shows the reality of what would happen if people saw someone taking a picture of them, it shows that they are having fun and wanted to have their picture taken which is a realistic factor of going out with a camera and pointing it around when drunk people see it being positioned their way, they will probably smile.