Blue plastic bags caught on a breeze, family plus Staffs in Dagenham - and pockets of affluence everywhere: this is London

Photojournalist Peter Dench is documenting modern Britain and he wants Londoners to help to him capture the city and its inhabitants, he tells Richard Godwin
23 August 2013

Peter Dench's images of London capture moments that make you look at the city and its residents afresh. Blue plastic bags caught on the breeze create a swirling planetarium above Wembley. A smiling family with their two Staffordshire bull terriers seem perfectly at peace on their Dagenham estate. Even if a Moorgate commuter looks crushed by his daily grind, a London cabbie looks delighted as he stands with his taxi by Tower Bridge.

“I’ve had the privilege to work in 55 countries but England remains my home and its people are the ones I’m most keen to document,” says Dench, a 41-year-old photojournalist who grew up in Weymouth and now lives in Crouch End.

Last year he published an acclaimed collection called England Uncensored, which collected a decade’s worth of photographs capturing the country in the first decade of the new millennium, shot with moments of humour and unexpected beauty.

“I was born on St George’s Day, so there’s no one more qualified to document the English than me,” he jokes. Now Getty Images and the marketing agency OMD have commissioned him to provide photos for their Future of Britain project — a wide-ranging survey of how the country has changed since the recession.

“There is poverty out there, of course, but what I find is that there is more openness,” says Dench. “I’d like to avoid the phrase ‘we’re all in it together’, but people are certainly more willing to share their experiences and show me what they’re having to deal with.”

It is London that inspires him most. “I feel younger here than I do when I go back to Dorset. There’s a vibrancy here that keeps you youthful. I don’t subscribe to the National Trust version of England as a green and pleasant land. I’d much rather photograph Arab playboys having a race outside Harrods or kids in Tottenham.”

He is still hungry for more — and is appealing to Standard readers who would like their own lives to form part of the new project. “If anyone wants to invite me in to photograph their home or workplace, or open up their side of London to me, I’d love to hear from them,” he says.

You can tweet Pete at @peterdench.

Battersea Park

Oblivious: a man in Battersea Park during a race (Picture: Peter Dench/Getty Images)
Peter Dench / Getty Images

“My daughter and my wife were competing in this race,” Peter Dench says. “I try and make the most of every opportunity, even if it is a family day out, so I took my camera equipment down there and found this man, oblivious to the fact that 5,000 people were running past him. I think that encapsulates what London is — we occasionally join together in a common cause, or we plough our solitary route through the city.”

London Commuter in a Mac

Rush hour: A commuter in a Mac passes through the Moorgate area of London (Picture: Peter Dench/Getty Images)
Peter Dench/ Getty Images

On a midweek morning a middle-aged man passes through a shaft of light at Moorgate station looking despondent. “I don’t commute myself,” says Dench, “but I find it fascinating as a ritual. Commuters know they need to walk at a particular pace to get to their work at a particular time. That means I can stand among them and photograph them without concern. I think this man sums ups how many commuters feel on the way to work.”

Arab Woman outside Harrods

Colourful moment: An Arab woman sits on a bench outside Harrods with her child © Peter Dench/Reportage by Getty Images
©Peter Dench/Reportage by Getty Images

A woman in a striking leopard-print headscarf sits outside the iconic British luxury store, now owned by the Qatar Holding Group, while her child stands in front of her. A Range Rover looms menacingly in the background. “I thought she was a very beautiful woman and it was a colourful moment,” says Dench. “The affluence of certain pockets of London has always interested me. As a photographer, you have to keep something of ‘a child looking at the world for the first time’ about you — and Harrods provides something unique visually.”


Tottenham Basketball

Positive vibes: Youths play basketball on courts at Ducketts Common, resurfaced after the riots that struck across the borough © Peter Dench/Reportage by Getty Images
©Peter Dench/Reportage by Getty Images

“I live in Crouch End, so when the riots were happening I could smell the fires in Tottenham. I’m keen to revisit what happened there and see how it’s being regenerated. For me, this is a very positive photograph. The basketball courts have been funded by Haringey council and I found a great mix of races, local black kids as well as the local Lithuanian community, all learning from each other. There was a great transferral of skills going on.”

In 12 years of photographing the English, Dench says, he has only been punched once. “Londoners in particular don’t mind being photographed as long as you have a good reason to be there. I found these kids very accommodating.”

Community Police

Hide-and-seek: Community Support Officers on patrol in East London © Peter DenchReportage by Getty Images
©Peter DenchReportage by Getty Images

Three community police support officers on the job — looking like three children playing hide-and-seek. “It was a surveillance operation,” Peter Dench explains. “They were trying to keep a low-key presence as they kept an eye on a bodybuilding shop that was under suspicion of selling banned substances.”

London Taxi Driver on Tower Bridge

Smiling face: 44 year old London born Taxi driver Lauren Harper with the cab he rents ©Peter Dench/Reportage by Getty Images
©Peter Dench/Reportage by Getty Images

“Taxi drivers are such an integral part of London life — this guy took me to all the places taxi drivers meet and eat. It’s a bit more of a formal portrait — I just wanted to show the smiling face of the London cabbie.”

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