Philadelphia-born photographer Tyrell Hampton is quickly making a name for himself in the fashion world, maneuvering through dimly lit rooms finding little vignettes of pure energy and slightly inebriated ecstasy. “It became my love language of recording my friends and taking photos of things,” Hampton explains. Scrolling through his Instagram, those “friends” include a bevy of the industry’s biggest names, including Mona Tougaard, Binx Walton, Mica Arganaraz, Alton Mason, Jordan Daniels, Bella Hadid, and Hailey Bieber. Whether it’s shooting a carefree Kendall Jenner or himself appearing in Calvin Klein campaigns next to actor Dominic Fike, Hampton is known for his candid shots of high profile events like the Met-Gala that stoke the fires of virality. When shooting in-studio, Hampton’s work breaks away from traditional fashion photography, banishing the mundane best practices of the usual fashion arena in favor of an atmosphere of unbridled energy. Hampton is a well of pop culture information, spitting music references as broad as Tokischa to Flo, or naming inspirations ranging from André Leon Tally to Spike Jonze to Mikael Jansson. Calling in from a European tour currently stationed in London, Hampton shared with Models.com how he made the jump to move to New York, being a sober club kid, and getting people to let their guard down.
Was your plan always to move to New York City when you were younger? How did you make that transition?
I was always a busybody and wanted to dance. When I was younger, my main focus was dance, so my mom asked me the question, which one do you think you fit in more in, LA or New York? I kept thinking about LA and how it didn’t fit. My mission was to be around people because I grew up Muslim and grew up not really hanging out. My mom made sure that I did not get involved in other activities that maybe some family members or people my age were involved in that looked like me. I saw myself moving to New York because I finally would get the chance to be a kid again and do the things that I couldn’t do when I was in middle and high school. I can hang out with friends after class and say, let’s get food or let’s go to the park. Things that some people take for granted when they’re just doing them through their childhood and adolescence. New York was definitely the big one for me.
I did a deep dive into your YouTube channel, which feels like a chronological time capsule. How did your photography work evolve from these early digitalized moments?
It came from one, boredom, and also from fascination and my imagination. I’ve always been obsessed with movies. As I mentioned, school and dance were my main priority, so within those parameters, my only free time to let my body rest was when I was home and watched my younger brother. We’d always be watching movies and looking at random magazines. Just looking at images day in and day out. Then around sixth grade, I knew I could document myself, and it made me want to do more, so I could have something to document. It became my love language of recording my friends and taking photos of things. I’ve always been a fan of incorporating my life on the internet because it made me want to do something with my life instead of, “I’m just going to be at home.”
I know that movement is such an essential component of your work. I wonder if your previous dance experience and love for music informed the way that you approach image-making.
I think it comes from the adage of “staying in a child’s place.” I try to stay away to keep myself out of what’s happening around me and stay in my own lane. I didn’t drink until recently. It forms the way I take photos now and with music, being able to sit back and watch people and see what they do. Everyone has their own body language and mannerisms. I’m a bit of a stalker in terms of how I watch people do certain things, “okay, this is how a person smiles, this is how a person moves their hand or talks with their hand.”
I imagine it’s not a job for a shy person. How do you bring energy barriers down?
Even that moment of shock is important to me because that’s the truest emotion that I’m able to get from you. You, in the element and the first instinct that you get from the flash. I love being in places where people don’t know me. I’m able to stay in a child’s place then catch people when they don’t even know what’s happening. It’s just nice to be in those rooms, and the club makes it the easiest for them to let their guard down.
Which came first, the lifestyle or the work? Were you fully bent on going into these spaces to capture people or was it just an organic process?
Considering I didn’t begin photographing other subjects with a camera until I moved to New York, it sort of happened organically. Me being able to have these moments with people that I had just met, making new friends, hanging out, and doing things that people take for granted, like going to lunch with a friend or to dinner. I was just being selfish and documenting these moments for myself to remind myself of this time in my life.
Once I started going to the clubs, I actually enjoyed these moments where people were shocked by the flash, the camera, and everything happening. Those images would speak to my friend group at the time more than images of me. So I would just start posting images from the night before and it would be interesting feedback because it wouldn’t be, “oh, I look horrible.” It would be, “we really had a time and had fun!” I remembered these initial reactions and try to always capture this feeling, the thing people will remember from that night.
Where do you normally look for inspiration currently? It doesn’t necessarily need to be connected to your work, but what kind of things do you seek out?
It used to be places, but now it’s people, and I’ll be on either Instagram or walking down the street, seeing certain characters that hold so much weight themselves. They have the personality and they have something that sets them apart from everyone else. I think right now that’s what’s driving me to make imagery. One of my friends used to have long hair and he just shaved it off. I wanted to photograph him in this moment in time because this is pivotal. People do certain different things when they go through changes in life.
“I don’t know what it is about my camera, my phone, and those intimate moments being so public that makes me feel so comfortable.”
What kind of subjects or models make being a photographer easy?
It’s always been characters. Even in movies, like I said, watching movies, you always sort of gravitate toward someone who’s similar to you. I think I always gravitated towards people, mostly women, who were outgoing, a little crazy, and free with themselves. One of my best friends, Jordan Daniels, is the epitome [of this feeling]; if I was a woman, I would be her. She is beautiful walking down the street, but she’s also so open to life, going into nature and rock climbing – she’ll never say no. I think photographing her in these different scenarios is always fun for me because it’s not necessarily her modeling, it’s her going through the situation, and I’m there capturing it, which is always really nice to have that fluid rapport with models.
Have you ever struggled with stepping into the limelight?
I think I was always okay with it. From YouTube and making funny videos at a young age to my recent years, it’s been fun for me to be able to showcase my personality through the internet. I don’t know what it is about my camera, my phone, and those intimate moments being so public that makes me feel so comfortable. The best thing is getting affirmation that I’m funny or that what makes me happy makes someone else happy as well. I think that was the thing, in the beginning, was with dance, I didn’t monetize that because it was so important to me that I was so willing to give photography, to have it as my job role because I was like, this is something I would love to share. I don’t really have that many photos of myself on Instagram, but I’m always present in some sort of way. When I look back, it’s really interesting that I am rarely showcasing myself in these elements as well.
Is it easier to capture the subject than be the subject yourself?
I definitely love being behind the camera, but a lot of people have told me it’s really nice that my images look or sound like me. Only I’m able to produce this imagery that I produced. There’s no one else that can have the conversation with the people that I can, have the connection, the friendship, the love that I have with some of these people to make the images that I do make and it really makes a difference.
How does your style translate to working for brands and magazines? How are you still true to what you love while working with corporate entities that have their own goals and metrics?
It’s sometimes through color. I have a certain love for certain colors that are more poignant than others. With talent, it is always the same conversation, which is me giving them positive feedback to certain cues, hand gestures, and mannerisms, saying, “I really love when you do this.” There’s this one thing that people do when you smile differently for a camera versus when you laugh for the camera. Laughing or really saying something funny invokes two completely different things, as they’re executed completely differently, and they also evoke a completely different movement from each other. It shouldn’t feel as though we’re working. It should feel as though we’re really here to sell a lifestyle.
Do you have any rules that you can’t break or any rituals that you must abide by?
An on-set ritual I abide by is music – I need it from the beginning to the end, and I need it blaring. I sing along usually while I shoot because it just makes me feel like I’m at the club again. I have to evoke that sort of club nature any time, any chance I get. Outside of set, I try to look at things in close proximity and then also from far away, if that makes sense. In London, I was in Soho earlier, trying to really gauge my surroundings and soak it all in.
What’s a lesson that you continuously need to tell yourself over and over again? What has this industry tried to teach you, in a way?
I would say you only live once. Sometimes you get into the idea that you’re doing too much or too little and you’re competing with other people. I’ve learned to just remind myself that I’m only here for a certain amount of time and whatever excites me, excites me and whatever doesn’t, doesn’t. In work, that just means if I’m passionate about something, then I’ll do it. If I don’t feel like it lends itself to my mission, then I probably will give it to someone else who was more deserving. This industry teaches you that your time is so limited and you can’t do everything.
What do you want somebody to feel when they see your work?
What people have told me is that they always feel like they’re a part of the party when they look at my images. They always feel as though they’re a part of the conversation, that they were there, or they’re friends with these people. I’m just trying my hardest to make sure that continues, and that’s always felt because I think it’s powerful to feel that way. I want to be able to look through a magazine and be like, I know this person who shot this because they’re friends with [them]. I’ve been thinking of Virgil lately, another Libra, he worked with his friends and that’s what made the conversation around his images so amazing. I’m obsessed with Spike Jonze right now, and I just found out he’s a Libra, too. Inez and Vinoodh, Mikael Jansson, Juergen Teller – they’ve been shooting for so long, and hopefully, following in their footsteps is having that longevity of work and still being able to do work that I actually care about. I always make a point that I love to work with my friends, and if they’re not my friend and I’m going to make them my friend by the end of the shoot.
