Peter Dench

Peter Dench ©  Jay McLaughlin

United Kingdom | Born in 1972

„I have not always been very kind
to Her Majesty the Queen. I followed her
on a tour of South Africa. When my photos
were published, I got a fax saying
“the Palace loved it”. I think I’ve been
forgiven. The Royal Family is like an old
Rolls Royce, it’s patched up and taken out
for special occasions. It costs a fortune
to maintain, but it also makes
the neighbours jealous.“

Peter Dench

Does Peter Dench like England? Born in 1972 on the feast day of St George, he grew up in a country undergoing dramatic change, torn between conservative tradition and aspiration to progress. He was passionate about images and soon turned to documentary photography, travelling around his home nation, from the depths of the countryside to the big cities and all the way to its seaside towns, where the weather takes every opportunity to thwart tourists’ plans. His images are of quirky, everyday scenes, like stag parties, village fairs, pub crawls and overexcited football fans. Cliched? Perhaps. But there is some element of truth to any cliche. And Peter Dench never ceases to amaze us, contributing to the picturesque of an England that visitors only get a glimpse of when travelling across the Channel.

His approach is ultra-direct, tinged with irony but always with a kind of affection for his subjects. The contradictions of everyday English life are brought to the fore, creating a clever cocktail of class and trash. Through his work, Peter Dench shows us an England that cultivates a mixture of British phlegm and eccentricity, where snobbery can rub shoulders with the crudest vulgarity. He has published a number of books, including England Uncensored and more recently Carry On England, both of which are essential reading for anyone looking to better understand a nation that oscillates between mischief and tradition. His work has also been picked up by magazines all over the world, which love his ability to reveal the absurd buried deep within the everyday. He has become one of the leading visual chroniclers of contemporary England. The strength of his photographs comes from this undefinable mix – spontaneous laughter, but somehow with gritted teeth. It perfectly encapsulates British humour, wavering between satire and tenderness. Peter Dench undoubtedly loves England. But one has to be cruel to be kind.