There are so many distinguished speakers appearing at our forthcoming Festival of Outdoor Photography, but eminent documentary/ travel photographer and OM System ambassador, Peter Dench, is a name that will be particularly familiar to AP readers.
Peter’s published six books, including The British Abroad and Alcohol and England. He’s also travelled widely, covering subjects as diverse as the 2018 World Cup in Russia, which he’ll be taking about at the Festival, along with the Ukrainian people’s love of beaches despite the war, and the ever-entertaining city of Dallas.
A highly engaging and entertaining speaker, Peter’s also exhibited at the prestigious Visa Pour L’Image festival in the French city of Perpignan. Commercial clients have included Ford, Canon, Coca-Cola, Weetabix, Barclays Wealth and Barclaycard, and he remains a regular contributor to the Sunday Times magazine (as well as AP).
He will be giving a talk and leading photo walks during The Festival of Outdoor Photography, all of which are musts for anyone interested in documentary photography, or travel work beyond the obvious ‘pretty face in a pretty place’ cliches. We caught up with the indefatigable Dench to find out more.
Capturing the quirky
‘I’ve been a photographer since 1998, working mainly in the editorial and advertising fields,’ he explains by way of background. ‘I’m probably best known for my work documenting the English, but I’ve been lucky to travel to around 70 countries on assignment. For me, that’s been the highlight of my career, getting paid to do something I enjoy and meeting so many fascinating people on the way.’
Peter has always been drawn to the quirky, off-kilter and oddball in his photography, so we wondered where this came from. ‘I think it’s down to my upbringing, growing up in Weymouth – a quite tacky seaside town, but a place I continue to have a great affection for. It was a ‘kiss me quick’ culture, you left the beach smelling of cigarettes and all the cocktails tasted of bubble gum… people wore t-shirts saying ‘sex, drugs and sausage roll….’ you get the picture.
If you combine this with a TV diet of Benny Hill and ‘Allo Allo,’ I didn’t stand a chance, really!’ I was also trying to add a different voice to the visual history of what is being created, especially in England.’
Peter’s rather seaside-postcard upbringing in Weymouth also sparked an interest in travel, which generates another classic Dench anecdote. ‘I spent three summers working in a joke shop opposite the train station. I saw visitors of Indian heritage arrive wearing saris and turbans, and it made me realise there was a world beyond Weymouth.’
Dench unleashed in the east
At 11.30 on Sunday June 1st, Peter will be talking about his unforgettable trips to Russia and Ukraine, and he’s keen to give a taster of this. ‘I am not a ‘spot news’ photographer, I am aware of what I do well and what others do well. I went to Russia as I was drawn to the story of the World Cup in 2018 – the world’s biggest football tournament in the world’s biggest country, which also offers the world’s longest single-track train journey.
In order for the story to survive beyond the World Cup, I wanted to do a story about size, scale, heroes, identity. So I was shooting football fans but also Russian youths wearing Putin t-shirts. It was the same with Ukraine. It took me a year for me to find a reason for ME to go, to find something that wasn’t being done already. When I heard that the beaches had opened again, that was it – the beach is my natural habitat as that is where I grew up. I wanted to document the Ukrainian lust for life and their quest for normality amid the carnage of the war with Russia.’
For balance, I then wanted to go back to Russia, so I reached out various contacts but they advised against it, so I instead went to Transnistria, an obscure strip of land with a permanent Russian military presence that’s also on the border with Ukraine. I wanted to cover stories that weren’t being done, and I will be sharing more about this in my talk at the Festival.’
Peter is also hosting photo walks on Friday May 30th and Sunday June 1st but again, he won’t be going down the conventional street-photography route. ‘My focus will be on confidence, of not being ashamed of afraid of being a photographer, which I think at lot of people are. I will also be helping participants to look for the quirky side of London and people’s behaviour, and to capture moments that make you smile, think and even affect change. Photography doesn’t always have to be earnest.’
Smaller cameras to the rescue
When it comes to equipment recommendations, Peter is an OM System ambassador and remains a fan of their smaller, more discreet camera systems – he reckons Olympus/OM System cameras also saved him from a night in the gulag on his trips east.
‘I got tired of lugging around big heavy cameras and lenses and pointing them at people. I wasn’t into this, and neither were they. I changed to Olympus around 2016 when they gave me an E-M5 to take to Dallas. I felt more confident and mobile, and it made me a better photographer – my subjects also responded in a more positive way to being photographed as a result of this. I’ve shot covers for The Sunday Times using OM System cameras, without any problems at all.’
Peter also felt much more comfortable using smaller cameras and lenses in Russia and Transnistria, and recalls how border guards in the latter territory asked him directly whether he was a professional photographer. ‘I said no, I was just a tourist, and after taking away my camera and 12-45mm zoom lens to check out, they let me through – much to my relief, as I expected problems. I reckon it saved me from a night in the slammer, or worse!’
As well as mining a rich seam of anecdote, Peter will be giving plenty of advice about getting your documentary and travel work out there, and finding a ‘longer’ story that exists beyond the immediate news angle. ‘I will be revealing more of the secrets of my success at the Festival of Outdoor Photography, so get your discounted tickets today!’
