Club Billboard

My name is Alex Murphy and I’m based in Bristol. I have a love for shooting film and capturing someone’s essence in their portrait - their style, attitude, piercing eyes, their tattoos through the mesh of their shirt and the outfit they safety pinned together. These photos are from my series ‘Utopia’, documenting Bristol’s queer nightlife scene. Through photographing this series, I immersed myself even further into the scene, showing up to every event with my film camera in hand and trying to capture the energy coursing through the room. The queue outside is like a runway and the 90s New York club kids reborn. The word ‘Utopia’ encapsulates what these spaces feel like, another dimension where a queer utopia exists underneath everything else, the underbelly where people are truly themselves, not simply existing but thriving, taking up space, being authentically themselves, a mass of ‘others’ interconnected in a single space together in harmony. An idyllic version of reality. These spaces serve as a utopia for LGBTQ+ individuals to thrive in, within a world that hasn’t been designed to include us. A fantasy realm of complete freedom of expression, celebrating individuality, creativity and community. You can view the full series here: alexkmurphy.com/utopia Instagram: @alexmurph.y (note: every time I upload a CMYK image the app crashes, so these had to be uploaded at RGB - I have CMYK copies of all of them ready to send over if selected!)