Peter Dench is raising funds for his photobook project The British Abroad; the merry antics of the [young] British abroad photographed in all its glorious splendour and excess. To help: www.kickstarter.com/projects/1042194258/the-british-abroad-hardback-photo-book This project will only be funded if at least £6,000 is pledged by Sat, Apr 4 2015 7:00 PM EST.
From Peter: Hello! I'm Peter Dench, an award-winning British photojournalist with over 15-years experience. I've had the privilege to travel extensively across the globe on assignment for magazines including The New Yorker; TIME; Sunday Times; Telegraph; Weekend Guardian; GQ and STERN.
Since 2012 I’ve, been documenting the British party phenomenon across some of Europe's best beach destinations: Ibiza, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Majorca and Croatia. My pictures reveal a colourful, wild and uniquely British world, and I’m now looking for funding to turn them into a hardback photo book. This will be a follow up to my book A&E: Alcohol & England, published last year by Bluecoat Press.
THE BRITISH ABROAD: The world of the clubbing holiday is a place of extremes, and one of the greatest is alcohol. Britons regularly top the league of drunken holiday hooligans. And no wonder.
On arrival holidaymakers are met by party promoters selling tickets for everything the Brit abroad has come to expect; foam parties, boat parties, water parties, luminous paint parties and the holiday staple, the organised party bar crawl. Party Hard in Ayia Napa, offer a bar crawl every Tuesday that includes five bars, drinking games, free shots and free club entry. The Party Crew’s, Let’s Go F**king Mental bar crawl in Sunny Beach, is three times a week. Tourists can expect a welcome cocktail, five free shots, a visit to four popular party bars and two free entrances to clubs. The average age of the 110,000 Club 18-30 customers who go abroad every year is 19. Partygoers must be ready to embrace the lows along with the highs.
On the main strip in Ayia Napa, I met 19 year-old Calum, a plumber from Scotland, being jovially pushed along by friends in a wheelchair. Calum slipped on the floor where he was staying and fell through a patio door and off a first floor balcony, severing the tendons in both of his legs.
Not everyone I’ve been photographing is on holiday. In Magaluf, I accompanied 32 year-old Security Officer, George, on the stretch of beach he patrols alone for nine hours, seven days a week, five months a year. During the night, armed with only a baton and five years experience, he had to disperse a rowdy crowd of around 20 youths trying to launch pedalos into the sea. A previous night, a tourist he interrupted being intimate with a young woman, stabbed him in his stab vest.
With the reportage I now have, I’m ready to publish a book that will allow others to step inside this world and see what goes on when the British land on foreign soil.
www.peterdench.com/
Bio: Achievements include a World Press Photo Award in the People in the News Stories Category for the reportage, Drinking of England and participation in the World Press Joop Swart Masterclass.
Football’s Hidden Story, a FIFA sponsored project comprising 26 stories across 20 different countries documenting the positive impact that football has had at grass root level on individuals and communities across the planet, received six global accolades.
Exhibitions include: LoveUK, Cardiff, Wales; The British Abroad, Photoreporter festival, France; England Uncensored, Visa pour l’Image festival of photojournalism, France and the Periscopio festival, Spain.
In 2012 I joined the core group of fully represented photographers at Getty Images Reportage.
I've made written contributions to The New Yorker and Telegraph magazine: Hungry Eye, the world’s first photography and film making journal publishes "the often laugh-out-loud" Dench Diary in each issue.
Solo books published include, A&E: Alcohol & England and England Uncensored, which was a Pictures of the Year International photography book award finalist. In 2013, the United Nations of Photography published the collected Dench Diaries as a limited edition pulp-paperback.
In 2012 I cofounded White Cloth Gallery UK, a photography + film, studio & events space in the heart of Leeds city centre and operated as Co Creative Director until October 2014, sourcing, curating and promoting exhibitions.