Final Analysis

Once you realise you're never going to be a great photographer it gets a lot easier, Peter,' a friend once succinctly explained.

- Peter Dench considers...

They could've said, 'Once you realise you're never going to be Zed Nelson, it gets a lot easier, Peter.'

Nelson's seminal book Gun Nation (Westzone Publishing, 2000), a disturbing reflection on America's deadly love affair with guns, is widely considered to be the definitive body of work on the subject. I concur. It's a book I often show to developing photographers as an example of how to construct a thorough, breathtaking reportage mixing portraiture and reportage. His brilliant 2009 book Love Me (Contrasto) acutely dissects the insidious power of the global beauty industry and societies' collective insecurity, vanity and fear of aging.

Pressing problems