Dean Chalkley

Dean Chalkley is a Photographer and Film Maker based in London. He grew up in the Thames estuary town of Southend-on-Sea in Essex UK. After training to be a Tailor he put the scissors aside in favour of the Camera and studied at Blackpool and the Fylde College, completing his Photography degree (1995). Whilst at college he began shooting for Dazed and Confused magazine. Since then Dean has continued to depict his love for Culture, and Music especially working with many different publications, record companies and fashion brands. He has undertaken high profile campaigns for the likes of Rayban, Levis and New Balance.


Filmmaking has become part of Deans creative outlook over the years. His films are often personal and experimental. The first being Strip (2000), a short film about parallel time continuums, next was a look into the beautiful world of the ‘Physical Culturist’, Serge (2005). Young Souls (2011) reflected an immersion in Northern Soul, The New Faces: A Short Film (2012) was a document to the contemporary ‘Mod’ Sub-Culture and most recently The Arena (2013) smashed onto the screen with it's poignant insight into 'Banger Racing'. The Arena was presented as an exclusive screening at the V&A Museum on the 27th Sept 2013 in conjunction with The New British and the V&A..

Personal Projects and commissioned work have produced imagery for several exhibitions including Now Stand Tall (2006), Southend’s Underground (2006), Young Souls (2011), Look.Hear (2012) 21 (2014) *Return of the Rudeboy (2014>) Sonics (2015) and Never Turn Back (2015>). Deans work has been presented in many notable galleries and exhibition spaces such as the V&A, Turner Contemporary, Royal Albert Hall, Essen's Folkwang Gallery in Germany, FoMu in Antwerp Belgium and La Foret Museum in Tokyo Japan.

2016 will see several new shows emerge some will be grand and large in production and others intentionally low-key. Dean always keeps the essence of spontaneity, energy and idiosyncrasy in his exhibitions.