Paul Hartnett is a photographer, journalist, writer, literary editor, broadcaster and teacher. His photography and writing have been published on an international basis and exhibited in London, New York and Shanghai.

Over the years Paul Hartnett has contributed to publications such as i-D, Dazed & Confused, Vogue Hommes, Tank, Vision, Too, Fashion Trend Digest, The Sunday Times Magazine, Independent Magazine, Tetu, Blue, Fused, Time Out and many more. He has recently given a number of talks upon street-style and Bohemia at London's Tate Britain and at Kong Gallery in Shanghai.

Hartnett's work is characterised by a poetic appreciation of imperfection, personality and eccentricity. He says, "My main interest has always been in the extremes of bodily adornment, and the various expressive and compulsive needs such exhibitionism aims to serve."

Born to Irish parents in West London back in 1958, Hartnett grew up in a residential home for the elderly which his mother ran. Educated by Benedictine monks at an all boys Catholic school in Ealing, he first began taking photographs at the age of nine when he won "a really nasty black plastic camera" as a bingo prize in the British holiday resort of Clacton. His first subjects were weary donkeys on the beach and starfish trapped in shallow pools.

Hartnett took his first nightclub photograph of Soo Catwoman at Bang Disco in October 1976, using a Kodak Instamatic camera. Armed with a Nikon he bought at a flea market, he then began photographing fans of the Sex Pistols in Chelsea's King's Road and Portobello Market, then Steve Strange's New Romantics in and around London's Kensington Market and Covent Garden, making friends with the likes of 'gender benders' Boy George and Marilyn, plus design icons such as Judy Blame, John Galliano and Leigh Bowery. Hartnett is the man responsible for closing Leigh Bowery's 80s club Taboo after a feature he put together for YOU magazine, in which he candidly mentioned the drug habits of so many clubbers within Taboo at that time.

In 1995 Hartnett ran the world's first club for drag kings, Naive, at Maximus in Leicester Square, home of Taboo. There was one strict rule there: no photographers. For six months he documented what has become a historic landmark in gay and lesbian development.

"Subjects I've recently enjoyed documenting include fashion students from Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts at Fanklub, fans of new French rock bands such as The Victorians, Nelson, Second Sex and The Tatianas in Paris, London's club characters such as Niyi of I Heart Niyi and Carri Mundane of Cassette Playa, the extremes of clubs Foriegn and All You Can Eat, those in the know at London Fashion Week, Glasgow's new breed at Riverside Club and Optimo, always in search of raw style, real style."

Paul Hartnett lives alone in a converted brewery on a hill in Haworth, West Yorkshire, UK.

Collectors

A wide range of people have acquired the portrait work of Paul Hartnett over the years. Such people include exhibitions curator Norman Rosenthal of The Royal Academy; film director John Maybury; acclaimed fashion journalist and lecturer James Anderson; opera director and curator Robert Chevara; club promoter Wayne Shires; performance artist David Hoyle (formerly known as The Divine David); B-Rude fashion designer Mike Nichols; fashion designer and Central Saint Martins lecturer Joe Bates; portrait photographer John McKay; the fetish photographer and 'freak show' expert known singularly as Ashley; vintage toy dealer Julian Kalinowski (aka Julian De Sade); make-up artist and teacher Jaime Anda: club kidz such as Black Beauty (John Haliday) and Cloakroom Tim. Recently exhibited limited edition print enquiries may be made direct to PYMCA. A limited edition screenprint of a Leigh Bowery piece is also available via PYMCA.

Exhibitions/Talks

2008 April / May
All That Glitters Solo show Sosho, Tabernacle Street, London

2008 February / March
Hartnett '76 > NOW Solo show Vibe, Brick Lane, London

2007
Show Offs Group show curated by Charles Williams of Another Late Night magazine Microzine Bold Street, Liverpool

2007
Hair Group show PYMCA Gallery Clerkenwell Road, London

2007
This Was England Group show National Film Institute Southbank, London

2007
Fear of a Young Planet Group show Kong Gallery Shanghai

2005
Faces Group show PYMCA Gallery Clerkenwell Road, London

2003
Talk and slide show on Bohemia / Street & Club Culture With Michael Bracewell and Philip Hoare Tate Britain, London

2002
Talk and slide show on Leigh Bowery With Michael Bracewell, Matt Lucas and Sue Tilley Tate Britain, London

2001
Pride Group show Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), The Mall, London

2000
Midnight's Children Solo show Freedom Gallery, Wardour Street, London

1999
Street and Club Portraits Solo show Ego, Soho, London

1996
Shooting Up Solo show Levi's Gallery, Regent Street, London

1995
Tribute to Leigh Bowery Group show curated by Tanya Bonakdar Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Chelsea, NYC

1995
Leigh Bowery Memorial Group show curated by Johnnie Shand Kydd The Fine Arts Society, New Bond Street, London