Peter Dench’s Style, in my opinion, is not of the surrealistic style it seems to me to be a collection of Images in different situations ether having fun and at the same overdoing it with the alcohol. In consequence of that overindulgence ending up in situations that they would in some way regret in the morning. Even the Dallas project to me is not surreal in my view surrealism is a constructed image that is dreamlike not a collection of images depicting every day life even if the depiction is of bad behaviour and although some of the images do seem surreal to the British, its only because they are not Americans so it seems unusual and unusual is not surreal.
None of the Images I have viewed on Dench’s website is, in my opinion, are surreal they are just different to what we are used to seeing in Photography and to me depicting everyday life in different situations.
“The definition of surreal. If we let go of the idea that photography is realistically portraying reality, we begin exploring a very different psychological and artistic territory: Surreal photography. They tamper with the boundary between reality and fantacy, showing us things that are impossible. “( google accessed 17/02/18)
There are some of Dench’s Images that seem surreal or have a surrealistic feel, but are not they are just unusual or somebody doing something stupid.
There is a lot of fun humour in a lot of Dench’s work, and I can see its attraction on one level, but also its message on the other. That how we as British are portraying our selves to others other. I think this message runs through his work, not just on the British level but his other projects as well.
These are my interpretation of surrealist images
OCA Photography Two. barry511915 