ABOUT
I work mainly as a documentary photographer, based in Bristol, focusing on everyday life in the streets, in the countryside and wherever people gather. I like to go back to the same place, week after week, over a long period of time. This not only helps me to get a deeper understanding of both place and people but also forces me to find new ways of photographing what I see.
I am particularly attracted to transitional spaces like railway stations and airports, which people move through on the way to somewhere else. On every day of the year, you can encounter people from different backgrounds and travelling with different purposes. Human dramas of many kinds play out, alternating with long stretches of inactivity and apparent boredom. These places can offer a special window on to contemporary life and photographs taken there over time seem to build a picture of how we live now.
THEMES
I rarely begin my projects with pre-conceived themes or an intended message. I try to be open to whatever is in front of me and the taking of the photograph is usually a spontaneous act. It’s the result of something I see connecting in the moment to something that resonates within me. My own preoccupations are always present in the photographs, but it is often only when I look at them sometime later that I realise what those preoccupations are.
Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary is a thread that runs through all of my work, as it does with many other street and documentary photographers. Another is observing the humour in everyday life. I notice that I am attracted to images of struggle and resilience. These in particular seem to say much about the times we live in and how we respond. I am also drawn to images of solitariness, often because they pose so many questions, but perhaps as well because they speak to something fundamental about the human condition.
Although I may see these as some of the themes emerging from my work, they are not necessarily what others will see. What I love about photography are the multiple meanings that any photograph can have, depending on how it is viewed and who is viewing it. A photograph in any case is never a straightforward window on to the world, but always an artefact, often saying as much about the photographer as it does about what is being photographed.
LANDSCAPES
Whilst I am mainly engaged in documentary work, I have a longstanding interest in landscape photography. I tend to focus on a few areas that I know well, primarily the Towy Valley in South-West Wales and the Severn Estuary in England. I have grown to love these areas and in photographing their landscapes I try to show what it is about them that makes them so special. I also like to photograph the wild things I find within them.
EXHIBITIONS
You can see my work in the galleries on this website, presented as digital exhibitions. Wherever possible, I like to present exhibitions of prints as well. Digital exhibitions can reach many more people, but print exhibitions have a special quality that can’t be replicated on a screen. My two most recent projects, based on year-long residencies at Bristol Temple Meads railway station and at Gordano Motorway Services, have culminated in both forms of exhibition. Prints from ‘People on a Platform’ are currently showing in Bristol at the Sandwi Café. An exhibition of prints from ‘Greetings from Gordano’ is planned for the Spring of 2026 at the Gordano Service Station itself. These venues are closely connected to the location of the projects and provide a fitting context.
BACKGROUND
Before starting my career as a photographer, I worked as a professor of cultural analysis at the University of Warwick. I see my current documentary work as in many respects a continuation of cultural analysis by other means. I have a Professional Diploma in Photography (Highly Commended) from the Institute of Photography.
Oliver Bennett