Tyrell Hampton’s Reunion, an exhibition cast entirely through DMs, is an ode to the beauty of new connections
Social media moves at such warp speed that hardly any of it withstands the test of time. Vine is gone. Tumblr is a relic, too. Twitter is technically still around, but I’m reluctant to say that X counts. Almost a full decade after Memphis rapper Yo Gotti’s iconic single ‘Down in the DM’ was released, however, Instagram DMs are the rare online tool that has actually maintained relevance.
The utility of the DMs, and of social media as a whole, was also part of the inspiration behind photographer Tyrell Hampton’s latest exhibition, Reunion. Created in collaboration with Instagram, the photo series features various portraits of real New Yorkers, with each subject discovered through DMs. To cast the project, Hampton, who’s part of the platform’s Drafts creator initiative, put out a call on his Instagram story and went through each response (of which there were over 1,000).
“The casting all started because I just wanted to find as broad [a range of] people as possible,” said Hampton. “The only way I make friends is obviously through the DMs, so I thought, this is the best way to incorporate my community and also try to find new faces and new people.” That process, which the photographer likened to a “lowkey America’s Next Top Model” type search, resulted in playful, uninhibited images that feel in line with the off-the-cuff aesthetic that Hampton, having started out as a party photographer, has become known for. The exhibit is filled with shots of subjects reaching for each other shamelessly, dancing body-to-body with eyes closed in unison, and lying atop one another with the ease of best friends. This is despite the fact that, before the shoot, many were strangers, both to Hampton and each other.
Camaraderie amongst strangers is, of course, an inherent part of life in New York, the city where, after growing up a classically trained dancer in Philadelphia, the young photographer got his start. It was here that Hampton found a home in the beauty and chaos of the nightlife scene, zig-zagging through the city’s most star-studded clubs, soirées, and kickbacks, and becoming known for his raw, spirited portraits of partygoers experiencing the euphoria of a successful night out. Past projects like his debut solo exhibition Go Home, for example, feature kaleidoscopes of disco balls, spit takes, and toothy grins. His genuine love for the city and its inhabitants has remained a throughline in his work, Reunion being no exception. “I feel like everyone that comes here, lives here, or is born here, develops this sort of energy where they're like, ‘I just have to make my dreams come true,’” said Hampton.
The photographer’s personal description of his latest work, typed out on a white brick wall at the exhibit’s entrance, perhaps sums up the spirit of the city, and of these new photographs, best. “You walk in alone and you leave with mutuals. That’s Reunion.”
See photographs from Reunion, which ran from November 12 to November 13, in the gallery above.