United Kingdom • Born in 1972

The Ruling Class
 

Does Peter Dench like England ? Born in 1972 on the day of its patron saint, St George, he grew up in a country grappling with great change, torn between conservative tradition and aspirations of 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 holidaymakers’ plans. His images are of ordinary, comical scenes, like stag parties, village fêtes, pub crawls and overexcited football fans. Cliched ? Perhaps. But these cliches don’t come from nowhere. And Peter Dench never ceases to amaze us, creating something like a cartoon of an England that visitors can only guess at during their trips 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 stoicism 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 reportage 
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 gone on to become one of the leading visual chroniclers of contemporary England. The strength of his photographs comes from this indefinable mix where the laughter is often through gritted teeth, but always spontaneous. It perfectly encapsulates British humour, wavering between satire and tenderness. Peter Dench undoubtedly loves England. But you’ve got to be cruel to be kind.

Labyrinthe Végétal

Peter Dench