Gwen Brinton Talks Exit London and Documentary Photography with peep Newcastle

peep magazine Street Photographer Gwen Brinton talks EXIT London and shares an intimate reflection on her photography and life experiences, whilst living in London, Nottingham and Leeds. Gwen is a long standing contributer to peep, and continues to share here intimate stories throughout this medium.


We both discuss the many characters she has met and photographed. Gwen Brinton also discusses a chance meeting with a well known gangster from London. He asked her if she would be interested in photographing his girls in a club in Kent, England. Gwen jumped at the chance.

Gwen worked in a popular pub within central London. It was at this moment she met a well known ‘Gangster’ from the are. They both agreed he would waited until after her shift to sort out transport. They both arrived at the club around 11.00pm and it turned out that the guy was minding the door that night. It was at this point that Gwen loaded her camera and started shooting.

Gwen explains that he felt the ‘girls’ were in a helpless position and ‘drug dependant’. The woman seemed at various ages and spoke with Gwen freely about their work as exotic dancers.

Gwen sites Richard Billingham as a major influence and explains the similarities within her own body of work. peep also discuss the work of Richard Avedon’s book ‘Evidence 1944 – 1994‘, which is a book that has influenced peep in many ways over the years. We both focus on Richard Avedon documentary work within an American mental institution. We acquired the book many years ago from Newcastle College Of Art And Design and unfortunately, never returned the book. The book was virtually un-read, and we thought nobody would miss it… While peep are on the subject of Street Photography, check out peep magazine’s street photography examples no rules journalism.



This interview contains photography by Gwen Brinton from the club in Kent, London.

Watch the full Exit London interview with Gwen Brinton Photographer