Travelling at home and abroad : the stories of photographer Peter Dench.
Copyright ⓒ Peter Dench
It is a curious shot. Martin Parr-like.
Two ladies stand by a burger van while we see a man in the foreground has a packet of chips placed in his pocket? I mean who…?
But he is good at capturing shots that pull you in and have you wondering, questioning. A thoughtful social realism that holds a mirror up to what we were, what we are and what we have become.
Peter Dench is a thinking man’s photographer with a penchant for looking at his subject matter and then breaking it down into subcategories. He once, for instance, channelled his energy into ten years of photographing and documenting England and then catalogued that into differing topical issues such as drink, ethnicity, rain and royalty.
He used a similar methodology on his trip out to the football World Cup in Russia 2018.
Copyright ⓒ Peter Dench
“I try to build that story,” Dench explains. “So, it can be broken down and sold in different ways so obviously at the moment I am trying to get the pictures of the soldiers I photographed on the Trans-Siberian railway and sort of try and show that, [and] give them a face.
“I have rode the world’s longest train journey. So, it was a story about scale. A story about identity… which is why I mix up the football fans with soldiers that I met along the way. It is also about heroes.”
He offered, as examples, Harry Kane and Vladimir Putin (who, in June/July 2018 during the football World Cup, was the ‘much loved’ leader of the Russian Federation). Writing in March 2022 I wonder if the Russian people’s fondness for Vlad might have waned somewhat given his February invasion of Ukraine?
Peter Dench is always looking at the different angles he can unpack from a solitary idea. He thinks like a narrator – revealing tales of life and leading his audience into a world of events, of people and then to that solitary moment where we all stop, reflect and wonder. Where we try to make sense of what we are viewing, try to make sense of what this existential journey is all about for all of us.
Copyright ⓒ Peter Dench
“I often use street photography,” he is telling me, “As the foundation for reportage, for an exhibition or a book. So, what is the definition?”
The question, I suppose, is rhetorical but no less important for that. Why are human beings so obsessed with labelling, cataloguing and compartmentalising everything, genres, sub-genres and sub-sub-genres and so on?
He is talking, of course, about the pre-supposed boundaries between street photography, documentary photography and photojournalism.
For a man who likes to take his subject matter and break it up into categories the lines of where one photographic genre stops and another starts are eternally and, perhaps, forever blurred.
He shoots, simple as.
Copyright ⓒ Peter Dench
“I tell stories ultimately,” he muses. “I am a storyteller…and if you want to peg that as photojournalism or street photographer…it doesn’t matter.”
Yeah, he shoots, that’s it.
Having abandoned a career in cricket as a young man, Peter admits he had difficulty controlling his nerves, he turned his attention to photography and graduated from Derby University with a degree in Photographic Studies.
“You can travel the world,” he said of his profession, “make people laugh, make people think and have a few drinks along the way.”
He paused and laughed.
Then added, “that didn’t seem a bad way to spend my time.”
When I asked him about the kind of equipment he used Peter told me he was an ambassador for Olympus and used an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III with Olympus M Zuiko 12-100mm F4 IS Pro lens, as well as a Mark II with a 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro M.Zuiko Digital ED lens, an Olympus OM-D EM5 II with M.Zuiko Digital 25mm F1.8 lens and Olympus FL-900 Flash.
“Oh,” he suddenly remembered, “I always have a bottle opener with me.”
We laughed. Of course you do Peter.
But there was no denying that his belief that photography would take him around the world was inspired, because he has travelled.
There was something in this firmly held belief of the 18-year-old Dench that became a self-fulfilling prophecy because photography has taken him around the world.
Copyright ⓒ Peter Dench
“It was an assignment,” he starts up again. “FIFA were commissioning an initiative – football for hope. I think it was called, ‘Football’s Hidden Stories’. Basically, I was assigned with a documentary film crew who covered as many stories across the globe where football was bringing hope to communities. I think that was 2007 so I got the job and yeah what a ride that was. I think it was 26 stories across roughly 20 countries.”
Peter Dench’s portfolio is certainly wide and varied and he doesn’t mind what you call it, street photography, documentary photography or photojournalism. Maybe it is, in fact, a crossover of all three? But you decide.
The British abroad is a series of fascinating shots of homeland holidaymakers letting their hair well and truly down in some other land. Transplanted to a different country they break free of the stress and strain of the daily grind and become disciples to the God of hedonism writ large.
Copyright ⓒ Peter Dench
Hush it says on the windows above a barefoot man lying unconscious on the street. Another man crouches beside him, while yet another sits on a window ledge, a cigarette between his lips. We are drawn into the unfolding drama on the sidewalk, the men glancing left toward a street cleaning vehicle heading toward them.
“I shot the scene for about 26 minutes,” I like the detail but say nothing and Peter continues. “I wanted to… understand – what is going on? I wanted to see how it unfolded. There is a guy called Derek from Hull who is trying to help the man collapsed on the pavement. He is worried that he will be picked up by a medical van and charged €400 (£333) for the privilege.”
As I said, I love the detail – Derek from Hull?
Copyright ⓒ Peter Dench
A scantily clad tattooed lady smiles back – over her shoulder – at (presumably) her boyfriend. She is wearing boots and is standing by a wall, It comes from a series Peter calls Sun, Sea and COVID-19 ( I always spell it in capitals in the representative manner of the World Health Organisation).
“I am from the seaside and I did grow up in the 70’s and 80’s,” Peter informed me. “That kind of seaside sense of humour embedded itself early. Both Benny Hill, probably inappropriate viewing now, but it did shape my teenage self, and that saucy seaside sense of humour. I am always kind of looking for those moments and that was something when out of lockdown beaches were opening up to the public and everyone descended on them en masse.
“I think I went to eight beaches across five days on assignment for the Sunday Times magazine. Just to try and get a flavour of the relief of the nation and what was going on. This was a scene in Hastings…on the south coast. I spoke to them. It is just a couple enjoying their day out so why not? We had been locked up for a long time, everyone was keen to get out and show themselves I think.”
If you take a trip out to Peter’s web page you will find a huge portfolio of his work, a journey through the lives of others as their stories unfold in that particular moment.
Dench, the photographer, who doesn’t like to package his work into one particular genre, is, nevertheless, always looking to catalogue the results of his creative process. A contradiction? I don’t think so, just good business practice.
“I am not one of those photographers that always have a camera around my neck,” he says. “I am not fidgety at lunch looking over someone’s shoulder. I quite like knowing when I am on the clock, when the camera is out the bag I am quite happy to put it away when I feel as if I have had enough.”
Peter Dench. Street photographer? Documentary photographer? Photojournalist? Storyteller… All the above?
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