The abandoned church at the heart of London’s ’80s nightlife

Photographer David Koppel remembers standing on the shores of Bournemouth at the age of nine, when his father handed him a camera for the very first time. He placed his arm around his son’s shoulder and told him to look through the viewfinder. At that moment, the die was cast. Koppel had found his calling, but it went deeper than that. 

“Decades later, I realised it was the feeling of safety and security I felt,” says Koppel. ​“Looking at the world through a protective shield of glass, and my father’s comforting arm around me that I tried endlessly chasing through the medium of photography,” says Koppel. 

He looked to his uncle, Frank Hermann, a Sunday Times photographer who showed him the ropes on assignment and in the darkroom on many a Saturday afternoon. By 1986, Koppel worked as an assistant to an advertising photographer, while devoting himself to personal studio portraiture – until he received an offer he couldn’t refuse.

• Read next: Remembering Taboo, the party that reshaped ​’80s London nightlife

The Limelight, a new nightspot in London’s West End, had just opened in an abandoned Presbyterian church on Shaftesbury Avenue – and needed a house photographer to snap portraits of celebrities at the club, and place them in newspapers and magazines. They were paying £25 a night plus expenses, on top of which Koppel could make an additional £50 per picture from indie weeklies like Record Mirror and NME. 

Then, barely two months into the job, his ship came in when The Sun paid £400 (approximately £1,500 today) for a snap of pop star Andrew Ridgeley’s girlfriend in a barely revealing dress. Fleet Street was calling, and Koppel was game. Now he looks back at the era in his new book, Limelight along with an exhibition of the work at Zebra One Gallery in London. 

Featuring photographs of Leigh Bowery, Boy George, George Michael, Siouxsie Sioux, and Nile Rodgers, alongside partygoers having the time of their lives, Limelight revisits an era when celebrities, artists, and regular folks went on nights out side-by-side, without fear of being photographed or recorded without their consent.

• Read next: Ravers are swapping dancefloors for chessboards

As house photographer, Koppel set the tone, moving through the crowds with his trusted Nikon camera in hand. ​“Being a ​‘house’ photographer came with a certain trust, and people were willing to pose with the understanding that nothing would be released that wasn’t flattering,” he says. 

The result was nothing short of magical. The club was dark and smoky, requiring Koppel to build a quick rapport with the people he encountered so that he could properly set up the shot by getting people to hold a match in front of their faces so he could focus the camera. 

And though folks like David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Billy Idol, and John Lydon were used to being photographed day in, day out, they always obliged Koppel’s request. Taken together, the pictures in Limelight form a family photo album of sorts, filled with a carefree glamour that has increasingly disappeared from public life.

Limelight by David Koppel is published by PAP Art. It will also be on view between October 9 – 21 at Zebra One Gallery.

Miss Rosen is a freelance arts and photography writer, follow her on X.

Buy your copy of Huck 82 here.

Enjoyed this article? Follow Huck on Instagram and sign up to our newsletter for more from the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture.

Support stories like this by becoming a member of Club Huck.