Behind the lens
Documentary photographer
@dave_swindells
The most significant youth movement to happen in Britain since punk, the acid house explosion of the late 1980s created a musical culture that still endures. DJs and musicians who were there at the beginning still play to large audiences around the world, and several global mega-music festivals owe a debt to the can-do ethos and visual aesthetic of the UK’s early acid house parties.
Taking place three decades before the arrival of social media, one of the definitive pictorial documents of the scene was captured by Dave Swindells, then the nightlife editor of London’s Time Out magazine. As a new collection of his images appears in his latest book, we found out more about those heady days – and the challenges of getting it on film – from a man who was there…
Was your route into this kind of photography to provide some photos for the nightlife section
