Pen name Hartnett Name P-P Hartnett | Period 1976–present Occupation Writer, photographer Role Writer | |
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Genre Novel, poem, short story, transgressive Notable works Deletion ,Call MeRock 'n' Roll Suicide,Sixteen,I Want to Fuck You Books I want to fuck you, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, Sixteen, Mmm yeah, Call me | ||
Notable awards North West Arts Award | ||
Peter Paul Hartnett (born 1958) is an Irish writer and photographer currently living in Tunis, Tunisia. His works include Call Me, I Want to Fuck You, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide and Sixteen. Hartnett's recent publications include << deletion >>, Full Screen and the series SEX : MALE, published by Autopsy, that contains works such as Call Me, I Want to Fuck You, Mmm Yeah, Sixteen, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, POZMEUP, You... and Needs Discussion. Hartnett has produced two spoken word albums of his fiction, Ferris Wheel Kiss and The Very Idea. Hartnett also fronts a band named << deletion >>, having released an album entitled Tripod, Camera, Self-Timer (Autopsy).
Contents
Unusually, Dennis Nilsen provides the front cover of his forthcoming collection, Full Screen. The spoken word album which accompanied his last book, a roman a clef entitled << deletion >>, was banned by Tunecore for its content – a fictional account of child abuse by priests at a fictional Catholic school in West London. Apple's iBooks Store went on to reject Full Screen as containing prohibited explicit or objectionable content, as reported in Keighley News and Telegraph & Argus.
Photography
Hartnett initially made his name as a photographer on the underground LGBT club scene, developing and printing his own work. Hartnett took his first nightclub photograph of punk icon Soo Catwoman at Bang Disco, London, in October 1976. He worked at London events such as Leigh Bowery's Taboo, publishing his photography in publications such as i-D, Dazed & Confused, V-Man, Vision, XLR8R, Fused, The Observer Magazine, The Independent Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph Magazine and The Sunday Times Magazine, among others. Hartnett's access to non-mainstream alternative spaces offered a view into a previously unseen part of this undocumented subculture. Although his work was journalistic in approach, he claims he has always attempted to capture real life from a moral perspective, saying, 'I tend not to take photographs that are in any way manipulative or exploitative. When I have, for example, photographed someone who has been drunk or drug-fucked, I will often edit these out of a presentation as they can be demeaning. I do not do nudes. Sometimes I have photographed dancers who look so lost, and these images tend not to get published as I feel a camera can be invasive and that is not my intention. I feel very protective about my subjects.'
Hartnett regularly documents London Fashion Week, plus music festivals, with his favourite being Rebellion Punk Festival.
As a collector of vintage photography, Hartnett is also a major contributor to the Photographic Youth Music Culture Archive, specialist image and research library for global youth culture, lifestyle and music, and registered charity, Youth Club Archive. Of the Archive, Hartnett writes, 'Year-by-year, staff such as Jamie Brett reach their white-gloved tentacles into the most unexpected sections of society in search of insightful visual documentation by all manner of photographers and writers, delivering style heritage with substance. Such work is then swooped upon by curators, making a "street" to V&A step look so easy.'
His broadcasting work has included MTV, VH1, RTL, BBC, Channel 4 and Discovery / TLC.
Awards and honours
Hartnett has won a North West Arts Award.
In 2007, Hartnett was also declared winner of The Manchester Monologues Manchester Metropolitan University Literary Competition, in collaboration with Urbis Offcut at The Manchester Fringe Festival.