Photographer, Teddy Fitzhugh exhibition is his debut in London and a vision of the capital’s underground music scene featuring some very private seconds of unsuspecting clubbers lost in the moment.
In ‘Have Fun Always’ the 24 year old Fitzhugh celebrates the absolute and elemental power of music through a series of striking black and white images.
The series captures those fleeting euphoric dancefloor sensations, how you imagine yourself, how you remember yourself. We can all associate with these images – and how wonderful to spot yourself afterwards. Privacy invaded maybe, but captured for eternity.
We spoke to Mr Fitzhugh on his photography and his debut show.
FLUX: Do you always shoot in black and white?
Teddy Fitzhugh: I shoot a mixture between black and white, and colour. For me, the decision happens in the edit. I choose the colouring of sets according to what I feel matches the atmosphere of the night documented.
FLUX: We see a lot of live photography and I think it is really difficult to make interesting. The thing I like about these is the way there is often one person as the focus – like private/internalised moments in a crowd. Is that intentional?
Teddy: In the selection of images for Have Fun Always, that definitely is a theme that runs through them. I like the fact that someone can be in a crowd of 1,000 but still having a personal reaction and experience.
FLUX: How do you choose the subject? Do you take lots and then sift them out, or do you watch and focus on a certain person? Are any of them people you know?
Teddy: I take lots and sift through. I shoot hundreds of images over the course of the night, and from there it’s a case of going through every single one and curating the selection so the final series reflects the night as a whole.
FLUX: I assume they don’t know you’ve taken the photo in a lot of instances beforehand. Do they get to see them afterwards? Have you ever been approached by one of your subjects after an exhibition who didn’t know they were going to be in a show?
Teddy: It depends. I mean they get tagged on Facebook, people use the images for their profile shots. I’ve never been approached by anyone who wants an image removed, and I would never intentionally put out an image in a nasty manner. As most of the images are taken for online only, rather than print, a lot get lost in the internet wasteland… the Have Fun Always exhibition seems like a great way to turn them into something physical.
FLUX: Is there a current fashion / music scene you are photographing that is really interesting to you from a photographer’s point of view?
Teddy: I am just interested in youth culture and subculture as a whole. I wouldn’t say I only document one group or anything, it’s just people with personality and individuality that capture my eye and interest me.
‘Have Fun Always’ is at 18 Hewett Street, London, EC2A 3NN until 18 March 2012. Fitzhugh will be releasing a limited edition book of photographs available soon.
For more on Teddy McHugh see http://teddyfitzhugh.tumblr.com.
