‘Total chaos’: Ewen Spencer’s photos of the Skins house party

In the mid-2000s, Ewen Spencer was already deep in the thick of Britain’s youth culture. His work at that time, from the emotionally charged snapshots of Young Love to the tightly framed heat of Open Mic, defined a new kind of intimacy in documentary photography. These weren’t just portraits; they were proof of what it meant to be young and restless. 

So when Channel 4 commissioned the ad campaign for the launch of Skins in 2006, Spencer was the obvious choice. The show needed images that conveyed the show’s themes: naughty, outlandish and young. Shot over two nights in a suburban house in Watford, the resulting photographs capture a scene that blurred the line between fiction and reality: cast members mingled with extras, and what unfolded was part performance, part real party. In the brand new photobook, unseen images of the cast feature alongside Spencer’s scrapbook and play-by-play shotlist for the shoot. 

We caught up with him just after back-to-back launches in Milan and London to talk about shooting staged realism and the recurrent nostalgia for the mid-2000s, or “skins fever”. 

What led to the release of the book now?

Ewen Spencer: These images had a new level of desirability; people didn’t just want to look at these online. These images had a life – they were on DVD covers and a massive UK-wide campaign: billboards, bus stops, the lot. Someone actually sent me pictures recently of the old ad spaces: huge spreads, all over the country. It was a massive print campaign. And the TV show produced merch at the time, which was distributed internationally. I guess that’s how the show became popular. But people want something physical again, beyond just Instagram. There’s this desire for a printed object. So it felt like the right time. 

So, take us back: where exactly were the photos shot?

Ewen Spencer: In a location house in Watford, a classic four-bed suburban setup. The production company styled it to look almost aggressively average. That was the whole vibe: suburban safety. The house had been used a great deal before for production. But a lot of attention went into the details. The cast had already been working together, so there was this chemistry. Two nights of shooting: the first for a 30-second TV spot – that’s become cult too, that ident – and the second for the stills.  

What was the energy like on the night?

Ewen Spencer: It was electric. The extras were students from Central Saint Martins, I think. They had a DJ dropping tracks all night in the living room. Total chaos. There was a big dance floor in the main living room area, and the kids were just going crazy, doing what they’d do at a normal party. These kids were probably doing that on a nightly basis. That’s what made the images look so real; they weren’t really acting. We just told them to do what they normally did. They delivered.

The photos do feel spontaneous, like a party you wish you’d been at. But also, there’s an underlying narrative.

Ewen Spencer: Yeah, we had a whole shot list. There’s even a scrapbook printed in the book, the actual one I used with the cast. It outlines everything, and you can see the shot list we were trying to achieve. There was narrative intention, especially around the lead cast.

Who else was involved creatively?

Ewen Spencer: Channel Four had an in-house team at the time who really got my work. They’d seen my earlier projects, Young Love and Open Mic, which were more documentary, found moments. For Skins, we were manufacturing that same intensity but on a set. It was controlled chaos. We discussed everything you see in the photos beforehand. We were making a contrived version of my previous work, the stuff which I’d previously had to go out and find. We wanted to recreate the feeling of a night out, but with structure. The extras were key. They made it what it was.

And the cast, how did they deal with the situation?

Ewen Spencer: Surprisingly, on it. We gave them little scenarios – vignettes to act out – and just let them play. Some were new to acting, like Dev Patel. It was his first role. His mum put him up for it. Others, like Nicholas Hoult, already had film credits and had been to film school. So it became this strange drama school-meets-house party hybrid. Everyone is learning from each other. But the best part was watching them blur that line between performance and real emotion. That’s what makes the pictures land.

One Night in Watford is available to pre-order here now