#17 CAMERA Book Review: Peter Dench - A1 Britain on the Verge

A journey through A1 Britain on the Verge by photographer Peter Dench.

Peter Dench's A1: Britain on the Verge is a documentary project produced in 2017 that follows the route of Britain's longest numbered road from London to Edinburgh in the aftermath of the 2016 European Union referendum. Inspired by Paul Graham's landmark photobook A1: The Great North Road published in 1983, Dench revisited the same route more than three decades later to examine a country experiencing political uncertainty and social division. Travelling the length of the A1, he photographed the people, businesses, places of worship, roadside cafés, service stations and communities that line one of Britain's principal transport corridors, using the road as a framework through which to explore the national mood at a pivotal moment in British history.

Rather than documenting Brexit through Westminster politics, Dench focused on everyday encounters, recording conversations and observations made along the journey to explore questions of identity, belonging and change. The photographs present a cross section of contemporary Britain, bringing together industrial landscapes, rural communities, migrant workers, religious centres and roadside culture to reveal the diversity of experiences that exist beyond the political headlines. First exhibited at Art Bermondsey Project Space in London in 2018, A1: Britain on the Verge stands as a photographic record of Britain at a moment of transition, demonstrating how a single road can become a visual thread connecting communities while reflecting the wider social and political landscape of the nation.

Peter Dench
Olympus

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