Tyrell Hampton moved to New York City aged 17. “These were my formative years,” the photographer tells Dazed. “All I had known prior to living in New York was dance, school and my family.” Like many people, his idea of the city came loaded with a “level of fantasy”, gleaned from TV shows like Gossip Girl and Sex in the City. And did it live up to these fantastical expectations? “100 per cent,” he says. “When I got there, I was like, ‘This is just my playground now.’”

Besides being alone with a “new sense of freedom”, New York offered up some formative moments: sneaking into his first club, seeing his first Birkin in the flesh... More than anything, though, it was the sense of community that drew him in, moving between parties, impromptu gatherings, and just hanging out. In the years to follow, this friend group would include future stars and fellow creatives such as Odessa A’zion, Lily-Rose Depp, Gabbriette, and Ethan James Green.

Hampton’s new photo book, Last Call, takes us inside his New York life from 2016 to 2018. When it came to taking photographs at the time, he says: “I didn’t really know what to expect. So I just went into it with no expectations.” If there was a guiding logic, he adds, it was to “gravitate toward beautiful energy” – an energy that is evident throughout the 300 pages of Last Call, whether the subjects are kissing, dancing, drinking, smoking, or posing for the camera.

Not that there was too much posing going on. Hampton speaks of a changing attitude among young people in the city today, partly motivated by a lack of communal spaces to come together, and partly by a lack of shared cultural touchpoints. “People are not really looking for a good time any more,” he says. “They’re just looking, I guess, to be seen.”

If it’s true that people’s carefree, fun-seeking spirit has been lost, then it’s not the only thing. In the photos Hampton took across the mid-2010s, he was also unwittingly documenting the last days of some iconic restaurants, diners, and clubs, and the scenes that coalesced around them. “I photographed so many places that don’t exist today,” he says. “Whole streets, even. New York has changed a ton.” The city’s residents, and Hampton’s friends, have changed a lot as well. “I guess in a more romantic way I photographed my adolescence,” he adds, “which is lost too.”

Many of the subjects in the book’s photographs, captured in states of reckless abandon almost a decade ago, are now getting married, hitting the height of their respective careers, or marking other milestones. “I still think of everyone as the same,” the photographer says, but the passage of time is undeniable in the pages themselves. Scrawled under one black and white photo is the message: “2017 they kissed, 2025 they got married.” Under another smooch (this time in colour): “They broke up :(”

“Let the kids do whatever they’re going to do. I’ve done it all” – Tyrell Hampton

For Hampton himself, the project marks a kind of retirement from clubbing, as suggested by the title. “I feel like it’s just time for me to take a backseat, do things a little bit more intentionally, and do it for the next generation,” he explains. “Let the kids do whatever they’re going to do. I’ve done it all.”

And does he have any advice for future photographers, who might want to document what comes next, for generations to come? “When I was younger, I definitely just stalked all my favourite photographers and stylists, read the magazines, looked at the credits, just really trying to get a sense of what it is that I was either up against, or could be a part of,” he says. In short: “Just be in love with whatever you’re doing.”

Tyrell Hampton’s Last Call book launch and signing takes place at Climax Books Friday 10 July, 6-8pm.