Paul Hartnett is a photographer, writer and university lecturer to students of Photography, Fashion Design and Fashion Journalism. 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, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Independent Magazine, Observer Magazine, Time Out, Têtu and China's Vision.

Attuned to consumer mindsets, Hartnett's extensive body of work has a sharp focus upon the identification and assessment of trends, stylestalking the 'directional'.

'Visually, I graze across cultures and different industry sectors, in search of individuals within heterophyllous groups that contain ethnically and socially diverse networks. My intention is to track originators, innovators and early adopters of trends. Ever since 1976, I've specialised in social trawling, with the focus being upon different style tribes within youth culture. Since the age of eighteen, I've detected and tracked changes in the way consumers dress and live. I document the 'braile', the style bumps that protrude within the fashion and clubland style-fixated landscapes.'

Hartnett has recently given a number of talks upon street-style photography and fashion forecasting at London's Royal College of Art, London College of Fashion, University of Wales (Newport), Westminster, Hull, UCA Epsom, Arts University College Bournemouth, Barking & Dagenham College, ICA, Tate Britain and Kong Gallery in Shanghai. Hartnett regularly produces visuals for Worth Global Style Network (WGSN) on a contracted freelance contributor basis and his archive is represented by Jon Swinstead at PYMCA.

'My photographic archive spans from 1976 to now. As the VINTAGE section of this site also reflects, I've collected vintage photographs for many years, images that contain a strong Fashion History and Social History content, dating from 1850 to 1950. These visuals, documented in a broad range of photographic processes, balance my own photographic work, which continues the street-style story that travelling tintypists documented with such vigour.'

Born to Irish parents in West London, 1958, Hartnett grew up in a residential home for the elderly which his mother owned. Educated by Benedictine monks at a controversially notorious all-boys Catholic school in Ealing, Hartnett first began taking photographs at the age of nine when he won '...a really nasty 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, linking 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 with a bang, having put together an explosive feature for You magazine (Mail On Sunday), in which he candidly mentioned the drug habits of an assortment of high and low life ambulance chasers within Taboo at that time.

In 1995, Hartnett ran the world's first club for 'drag kings', Naïve, at Maximus in Leicester Square, home of Taboo. At the venue created as a playground for female-to-male transvestites and transsexuals, there was one strict rule: no photographers. Such a strategy allowed Hartnett absolute exclusivity.

'Loitering with intent at events, subjects I've recently enjoyed documenting include the bonehead and trad' skin'ead geezers attending Blackpool's Rebellion Festival, the annual 60s event named Scorcher in Birmingham, a select few at London's Graduate Fashion Week, Frieze Art Fair / London Art Week, Free Range, Wayne Hemingway's annual Vintage event, plus those in the know at London Fashion Week… always in search of raw style, real style.'

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