Dean Chalkley’s Young Souls series was less a regular project and more a labour of love – Chalkley has been into Northern Soul since he was a teenager, and runs soul, funk and rhythm and blues nights in London. Sparked off by a commission from 125 Magazine, the project had to be shot and completed within a very tight timeframe, meaning that Chalkley had to draw on all his contacts in the scene. “I bumped into the 125 guys three days before Christmas and they invited me to do it,” says Chalkley. “Then they told me it needed to be finished by the end of February and asked me if I’d like to do a film, too!”

Chalkley approached the project in two halves, shooting the still images first then starting the film shoot 12 days later. The film shows a car full of friends driving back from a night out, a Northern Soul enthusiast at home and a club in full swing, and was shot partly in Southend-on-Sea, where Chalkley grew up, and partly at the Dome, an old club near his studio. “There were no trained actors and Scully [the hero of the film] has got a fantastic car so I used that, and used a friend’s home in Southend,” says Chalkley. “We used my mum and dad’s house for hair and make-up.”

Chalkley had been to the Dome club before and knew it was authentic and untouched, so he talked the manager into letting him run an all-day club session then “put the word out” on community websites and forums for Northern Soul fans to come and take part. He let the “Soulies” dance for a couple of hours to get into the atmosphere then used Canon 5D Mk II’s handheld on the dancefloor to get inside the action. For the stills side of the project, he shot 13 people using a Phase One camera from Punkbear Digital plus a flash from Sola to freeze the action. He deliberately chose younger fans for these images, which were also shot at the Dome, something that was controversial in the multi-generational Northern Soul scene but an important part of the project for him.

“I wanted to particularly show young people have a choice, that they don’t have to be spoonfed the treacle of bland pop music,” he says. “Northern Soul originally started out as a mod thing many years ago but, as it evolved, it changed and became all about the music, not the fashion. You can see young people getting into it and loving it. Many have totally different looks.”

The film is now on show on 125 Magazine’s website, and the images have already been published by 125. The project was also picked up by youth culture specialist PYMCA for an exhibition at its Youth Club pop-up gallery. It has been hard work but it’s the way Chalkley would like to operate in the future, he says, setting up his own projects then getting galleries and clients to come on board. “I’m thinking carefully about what I do next,” he says. “I don’t want to do just anything.”

Visit www.deanchalkley.com.

Image © Dean Chalkley.

Image © Dean Chalkley.