Dean Chalkley revisits the untamed spirt of Ibiza's golden age, capturing club culture at its most raw and radiant.

Renowned for his work capturing the spirt of music and sub-cultures, Dean Chalkley has spent decades documenting moments that pulse. In his latest release, Back in Ibiza 1998-2003, he opens the archive on a hedonistic period in clubbing history, a pre-digital world of connections and unfiltered expression. We sat down with Dean to talk about the books origins, the creative process behind it and why now is the perfect time to revisit this unforgettable era.

1. Dean can you introduce yourself and some of your work as a music photographer.

Certainly, hi everyone…I’m a photographer and filmmaker, my work engages with interesting people and topics crossing genres and exploring culture. Music is something that is very precious to me, from a young age I’ve been moved by it and the effects that it stimulates. To me music is a vital and inseparable part of my character, it has helped define a great deal of my life. However, I don’t strictly consider myself a music photographer, instead, I engage in things that interest me, so no limits - although having a passion for music naturally means that I navigate towards it and want to work within it. Even if I’m photographing people, places or things outside of what could be termed music, it is not too far away; music itself informs me, you could say and more often than not is brought into the creative equation with whatever I’m doing.

Over the years, I’ve worked with a great number of solo musicians, collectives, and groups. I often collaborate directly with the artists or with them and their record companies. I’m regularly commissioned to shoot features on artists and personalities, I also make lots of personally motivated projects too.

2. Your new book Back In Ibiza 1998 – 2003 is out now…can you tell the MPA community more about it.

The book is a bit like a time machine, as you enter it and turn the pages, it lifts you up and drops you right into the heart and heat of the Ibiza club scene of the late ‘90s early ‘00s. This was the epicentre of the clubbing world at a time and many consider it to be Ibiza’s golden age. This dynamic photographic book immerses the reader in that hedonistic period, a rare glimpse into a world where everyone is casting their collective fate to the wind…

BACK IN IBIZA contains over 300 photographs shot by me and, although it is primarily a photographic book, there are several written entries from people such as DJ Paulette, Shaun Ryder & Bez from the ‘Mondays’, Mike & Claire Manumission, Brandon Block and Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy to name but a few, all reflect on that heady period.

3. What inspired you to release this book now, over twenty years after you documented the scene?

The simple answer is…THE TIME FELT RIGHT!

There is a massive love for this period now, and, to my knowledge, no one has championed the late ‘90s and early ‘00s like this before. The book reaches out and pulls the reader in. The appeal is broad too, those who were there and get a nostalgic buzz from seeing how it was, equally those who would’ve loved to be there will dig it - and those who know nothing about it will also be amazed. There’s a universal appeal and a wondrous energy emanating from the book, I know, I would say that as the author, but I genuinely believe it! When some of these pictures were first seen ‘back in the day’, they caused quite a stir! Now the 1998-2003 period connects with audiences in different ways it’s incredible how looking back, there is an accumulation of factors that make this body of work so riveting. Considering you are looking at history, this experience is so full of life and vibrancy.

This was a time before camera phones and social media! This is an important point, people were absolutely living in the moment, not thinking they have to present themselves as a ‘brand’ - people in this book are freely expressing themselves, unhindered from that pressure.

4. What was the process of creating the book?

Rewind to 1998, Paola Cimmino was the picture director at Mixmag and the person who asked me to go to Ibiza for the first time. Paola loved the results that came back from that initial trip and all my other Ibiza pictures too. After some of the images had their initial exposure in Mixmag, they sat on the shelf, confined to the neg files biding their time. It was like they were waiting for the moment they'd see the light again.

A few years ago I considered doing an exhibition in Ibiza, but the timing felt wrong; then the pandemic happened and that put the breaks on the idea. As we eventually came out of those dim and grim COVID times the notion of making the book rapidly evolved and I got together with Paola to talk about it. Paola encouraged me to get the wheels turning again, the more we looked through the work, the more exciting it became. Diving deep into the Ibiza archive was so refreshing and the power of the pictures was clear to see, they were ALIVE! It felt like the timing was now perfect.

I contacted designer Ciaran O’Shea and collectively we made a presentation deck with a few of the images and an outline of aspirations and direction the book would take. I did the research and made lots of enquiries working out who might be a good publisher for a book of this nature. Jon Swinstead at the Museum of Youth Culture suggested a highly revered publisher called ACC Art Books. After a great face to face meeting with ACC’s CEO James Smith, it was immediately agreed the book was going to happen! Boom. Amazing! James totally got it, he saw that the work already existed, and with the collaboration of Paola and Ciaran we had a great creative team that could be trusted to deliver something very exciting.

…and so the absolutely wild ride of creating the book began. Things happened fast and in all directions all at the same time, it was full on! As mentioned, I’d presented a deck but the actual book was at the beautiful point where the loose concept was locked in but actually what was in the book and how it worked was very much in a state of flux, from that point we built the book.

Just around then, I met Isa Hess, a student at Central St. Martins (now graduated), Isa assisted me in the scanning of most of the film along with some extra help from James Parker - it was a mammoth task... Paola and I then began selecting the images, this editing process took weeks of solid work, whittling away as there were so many images to go through. Paola’s skills as a producer also came into play. Creating a book like this in a relatively short period required tones of work, we had to be efficient- structure and timelines were crucial to enable us to get everything done perfectly and on time to the publishers, we were in close contact with ACC for help and guidance.

I tracked down and started conversations with everyone I wanted to contribute written text, it’s intense getting that side of things together as you're communicating with everyone all at once. I visited Ciaran’s studio a lot as well, we began defining the aesthetics and design. Working with Ciaran is always such a buzz, we’ve worked on lots of projects in the past, we bounce off each other creatively, things move fast and we get them done.

The design development was fun, we considered the physical size of the book, amount of pictures, the order, pace and interplay of the images in the layouts, font choices and things like the finish of the cover was also crucial too. It’s very unusual for books have glossy covers nowadays but for this book I was hooked on a gloss cover, I love the way the colours POP, super exciting and it suits the subject matter of the book so well. We also introduced a deboss to the cover image giving the cover a really special tactile feel. After constant and full on conceptualising, planning, scanning, preparation of images, designing, refining and working on text etc the book took shape…in just over a year it was complete and delivered to ACC.

5. The book captures some iconic moments in Ibiza club culture and the scene - can you describe one image that stands out and why?

Gosh, there are so many pictures that scream out! It is hard to select one over another. The book thrusts the reader into the moment with all its chaos - I didn’t want to break this spell, so I made a conscious decision not to caption or index the images, instead I allowed the book to flow.

However for you dear MPA reader, I will pick one to talk about, La Espuma - Foam Party, Amnesia. To me this image is so atmospheric and otherworldly, like an ecstatic Dante’s Inferno, the foam engulfs the dance floor abstracting the clubbers and making them into a molten heaving mass under the orange light, the hands of the person on the balcony seem to be dripping like they are made from wax, whilst the the person down in the crowd with both their arms raised has a wonderful euphoric surrender in amongst it all. I think this is a pretty otherworldly image, one that transmits an alternate state of mind and momentary existence. It’s both stimulating and suffocating, full on sensory stimulation, and that is exactly what it was like in the thick of it.

6. The book features people who were immersed in the Ibiza scene during that time – how did you capture those moments?

I wanted to make my pictures dynamic, insightful and celebratory images, also playful and regard the whole scene and environment with a giant amount of amazement. When I arrived in Ibiza, I was absolutely blown away by the remarkable things I saw, how unique this experience was; I wanted my pictures to transmit this. I loved the sense of liberation. I wanted to preserve this incredible energy. Of course it’s now decades later, but I believe these images are as powerful as the moment they were taken. In fact, they are even stronger today as so much of today’s culture has a kind of puritanical limiter, raw pure authentic energy is a rare thing- so when you spot it it’s even more powerful.

The people I came across are the stars and I was right in-amongst them, not viewing from a distance; technical note, the camera I mainly used was a medium format film camera with a wide angle fixed focal length lens. This meant I connected with people directly and I loved that. I’d use an external flashgun, deciding whether to use available light, flash or a mixture of both depending on the circumstances I encountered. It’s worth remembering, that unlike using a digital camera once you have a roll of film in the camera that is it! You’re locked into using that ISO, with digital photography, you can obviously change it between frames, 100 ISO for one image or 6400 ISO for the next; that wasn’t possible for the camera I used, but I just worked with that, adapting, something as simple as that can help define how you approach things and what the result might be.

7. How was the creative process documenting Ibiza different to your portraiture work?

Generally speaking, when I go to photograph somebody as a portrait session, there is a fixed amount of time, the place we rendezvous at is agreed, it might be a studio, or maybe a location, but, generally, there are defined margins. Within those margins comes the creative exchange, experimentation and resulting images…The social documentary scenario I worked in Ibiza with was very different, the time was the length of the trip and anything could happen at any time, I was always ‘ON’, stuff was always happening and I wanted to experience as much as I could. A lot of the time I was on my own with an open brief, I had to be self sufficient, highly motivated and not succumb to the temptations of my environment, as they might derail my photographic passion... The people who commissioned me trusted me, just saying ‘get as much good stuff as you can…’ I pay full respect to Mixmag for this, it takes a great degree of courage to put trust in someone like that. They knew full well I loved it so much, and would come back with lots of stimulating images.…This is the polar opposite to the ‘let’s do a moodboard and plan the outcome.’ type of shoot, no, this is about searching for the soul of the situation, constantly being connected to the moment and thinking and feeling what’s going on.

8. If you could freeze one moment in time from your career what would it be?

I’m never static, I’m constantly looking forward even if it’s thinking and planning ways of presenting the past.. The book is a good example of this. I really loved my times in Ibiza, but similarly, I’ve had so many other times through my career that have been defining moments. They all add up, continuing to define and redefine my taste, inspiration and output. What I can say, though, is that heading out to Ibiza was so thrilling, a full on sensory experience, visually, aurally, psychologically and sociologically even the heat of the situations, the smells and the emotions of it all was overwhelming, it was physically and mentally stimulating in every way.

9. This year’s guest category is Club Culture and the winner will receive a mentoring session with you. What’s one piece of advice you would give to entrants?

I’m really looking forward to seeing the entries and who the winning photographer might be. My advice to entrants would be to submit images that surprise and excite, illuminate the viewer to something you feel strongly about, rather than just relying on the technical proficiency of the camera tech. Try to inject your own creativity into the image, don’t just let the camera do all the work.

10. You’ve spent years immersed in music photography - what advice would you give to new photographers starting out?

Try to see the wonder in things, even if it’s mundane or everyday… Think about what you are observing and how it culturally connects together, if you retain interest in what you do, you will be constantly stimulated and always find new and exciting things to engage with…forever.

A huge thank you to Dean for taking the time to write this brilliant piece. If you’d like a copy of the book, you can find here.