“The Noughties” : Prague Nightlife, 2005-2009 : Photo Exhibition By Edward Longmire
10th November 2026 – 12th December 2026
The Long Gallery, Chelsea Library, Chelsea Old Town Hall, King’s Rd, London SW3 5EZ, UK
Prague, Czech Republic, 2005 : a generation newly liberalised, using photographic equipment and mobile phones of the time, two technologies which were rapidly merging to change the global photographic landscape. Whether through circumstance or coincidence, photo opportunities emerged in daily life that were seemingly endless. Later, everything changed and everybody became far more privacy conscious.
I was an English teacher in Prague at the time when I took the vast majority of these pictures, usually on a Friday and Saturday night, typically at the end of a busy week. In night clubs, it seemed there was an implicit urge to disobey societal rules on every level. No. 1 : “Keep the volume down” : most of these pictures were taken amidst deafening music, whether in the background or the foreground. No. 2 : “Respect Personal Space” : overcrowding on dance floors would probably cause cardiac arrest to a modern Health & Safety officer. No. 3 : “Smoking is strictly forbidden” : one would wake up with clothes carrying the smell of the previous evening deeply ingrained in every pore of the fabric.
Looking at the material some 20 years later, it becomes apparent that the technology available at the time, now considered laughable by some, actually created an effect no longer possible : think blurred focus, dim lighting, or just factual ambiguity. And most of the venues don’t even exist anymore. But what is evident is a record of a particular vibe, of what was going on with the culture of that time, free of social media saturation and not concerned about privacy in the slightest.
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