“I’ve always been captivated by people who live on the margins, who refuse to fit into the boxes society tries to put them in,” says photographer Juliette Cassidy of 24 Hour Party, People, her new photography project which documents Barcelona’s hardcore and car tuning subculture.

Shot entirely on 35mm film, the photographs follow 24 hours spent embedded in a hardcore community whose roots stretch back to Valencia’s Ruta del Bakalao scene and the explosion of rave and electronic music that swept through Spain in the 80s and 90s. “I was aware of this subculture and always found it fascinating, but after talking with a friend from Valencia who is a fan of hardcore, I was curious to dig deeper,” Cassidy explains. She wanted to avoid the stereotype that these communities are just about drugs and disorder. “It’s actually a space with incredibly strong, passionate values and a rigid, DIY code of ethics.”

Cassidy began her day at 11am, initially focusing on a single subject in an attempt to “capture the energy of someone deeply embedded in the scene”. But that one-person study was soon abandoned as word spread about her photography and others began to join in. “The day turned into a collective journey, and we all headed to a big disco in Cerdanyola del Vallès,” she says. When the light faded that evening, she put her camera away to avoid using flash and preserve the atmosphere, but around 6am, as the sun rose and the light shifted perfectly, she started shooting again.

While Cassidy was shooting around the clock, it was often at the very end of the day that things became most interesting. “While the crew I was photographing weren’t fully aware of themselves anymore, and their guards were down because of the long hours, I remained very conscious of what I was doing. This allowed me to capture moments that were very honest,” she explains. Inspired by photographers like Nan Goldin and Danny Lyon, the project sits within the tradition of immersive documentary photography. “These photographers didn’t just observe their subjects but lived alongside them. Despite being exhausted, by staying for a full 24-hour cycle, this project follows that lineage of capturing subcultures in their intimate state," she says.

This intimacy is central to what the photographer hoped to document through the project, and it comes through in images of a couple embracing as they share a cigarette, or in monochrome shots of friends absorbed in conversation. “I wanted to capture the reality that this isn’t just a social circle, it’s a support system. Many in this scene don’t have easy lives, and knowing their backgrounds, it’s clear that their bond is a necessity,” Cassidy says.

As she worked on the project, the scene’s shared ethics and loyalty became increasingly clear. While hardcore parties can be intense and unpredictable, everyone was looking out for one another. “If one person wasn’t feeling okay and needed to leave, the others wouldn’t stay behind to keep partying; they all left together,” she continues. “It felt like a tribal survival mechanism, a subconscious understanding that they only survive and move forward by taking care of their own. That kind of loyalty is a world away from the rigid, individualistic norms that society often tries to impose on us.”