England’s Dreaming: Ewen Spencer documents British youth

[Wayne Ford]

England’s Dreaming: Ewen Spencer documents British youth and its place in contemporary society.  In 2001, British photographer Ewen Spencer began his expansive series, Teenagers, that documented the lives of various youngsters during that difficult and frequently fraught and sensitive period of adolescence. Teenagers would form one of the key chapters in his long-form interest in youth culture that now spans over 15 years, which has drawn wide critical acclaim.

Surprisingly, as a teenager himself, Spencer never owned a camera: ‘I simply didn’t have the inclination to pick one up and make pictures,’ he reveals. But, ‘I wish I had. I looked great. My mates — of course — looked better; lounging around the back of C&A in Newcastle on the scooters of older lads that had gone off around town performing there pea-cocking, in search of new threads to wear at the Mod nighters that I was far to young too attend.' Read more...

Image: 6th Form disco, Rossendale, Lancashire, 2000. (©Ewen Spencer/Courtesy of the photographer).