About Lucy

Lucy McCarthy is a freelance photographer with over 20 years of professional experience. Her best-known work is her photography of 1990s club and rave culture, which she began shooting at 16 while still studying photography at school. Attending clubs as a participant rather than as an accredited photographer, Lucy took her camera with her on nights out, creating a firsthand visual record of the people, fashion, identity and atmosphere of the scene.

Lucy studied Visual Communication at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, graduating with a BA (Hons). Alongside her degree, she worked as a personal shopper at Harvey Nichols, gaining early experience within the fashion industry. After graduating, she went on to assist Rankin, work for Dazed & Confused magazine and become a retoucher at one of London’s largest photographic studios in Camden.

Her career has encompassed fashion, music, events and commercial photography. She also founded a pet photography business, Dr Lulittle, working with clients including the RSPCA. After leaving London in 2008, Lucy continued to work within the fashion industry, moving into fashion buying at the head office of a major UK supermarket brand while continuing to develop her photographic practice.

Lucy’s rave photography has been exhibited at prestigious venues including Carnaby Street, Corsica Studios and galleries in Shoreditch. She has worked with the Museum of Youth Culture for over 10 years, beginning with the landmark Lost in Music exhibition in 2015. Six of Lucy’s rave photographs were selected to appear in the exhibition, following more than 55,000 photographic submissions to the project. Lost in Music explored the history and cultural impact of dance music and was one of the largest exhibitions of its kind.

She also played a significant role in Wear the Movement, a rave-focused project with fashion giant Depop, contributing to an exhibition, film and fashion campaign.

Lucy is a disabled photographer and campaigns for greater awareness and understanding of invisible disabilities. She lives with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). The variable nature of these conditions has made her route through the traditional arts and photography industry more challenging, while also informing her developing photographic practice.

She is currently developing a new body of photographic work exploring and challenging perceptions of what it means to live with several invisible disabilities. The project is being developed in collaboration with the national charity Ehlers-Danlos Support UK.

Coming soon: Fanzine 01 — A Teenage Perspective on Rave & Club Culture.