In Conversation with Dean Dùmarè

British-Nigerian photographer Dean Dùmarè uses portraiture as a way of documenting community with honesty and care. His ongoing Portraits of Brixton series offers a thoughtful counter-narrative to the headlines often associated with the area, foregrounding the richness of everyday life and the people who make Brixton what it is. We spoke to Dean about the project and the values central to his practice.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your practice?

I am a British‑Nigerian portrait and documentary photographer whose creative practice centres on intimate, human‑focused storytelling. Working at the intersection of portraiture, culture and place, my work foregrounds emotional presence, intergenerational memory and the everyday textures of Black life.

What drew you to bring this photography series to life?

There's an assumption of life in Brixton being inexplicably tied to poverty and youth violence. Where gentrification and redevelopments have been positioned as the solution. So my documentation of Brixton has come as a response to this, choosing to represent the fullness of life in Brixton.

How did you approach building relationships with the people and places you photographed?

D: Simply by spending time in places and with people. Photography can be quite an intrusive and dispassionate practice, but for this project, I realised it couldn’t.

Initially, I took a street-style approach to the project, but I found this to be divorced from the core idea of the project. I became objective-driven, drawn to spectacle and extractive. Perpetuating the assumptive representation of Brixton that I tasked myself with subverting. I was “taking pictures”, and thereby missing so much richness of understanding.

Brixton has a rich cultural history and a strong sense of identity. How did you balance documenting the area with telling your own creative story?

D: By always centring the people, I constantly interrogate my whys for this project. And I frequently return to the people being imaged and why the documentation of them in the moment, no matter how mundane, is vital to the representation of Brixton’s identity.

Care is central to our work. What does care mean to you as a photographer, especially when representing people and places with complex histories?

D: For me, care means acknowledgement and respect.

How did you develop the visual style of the series, and were there any particular influences behind it?

D: I've spent a lot of time people-watching, watching films and visiting galleries. I think they’ve all informed my practice.

Some of the photographers who have particularly influenced my work are:

• Liz Johnson Artur

• Dana Lixenburg

• Roy DeCarava

• James Barnor

What do you hope audiences take away after spending time with this body of work?

D: I think more about the people in the images than my audience. I would hope they like how they’ve been portrayed.

Is there anything else you'd like people to know about the project or your wider practice?

D: The project is far from finished. There is still so much more to come.

You can follow Dean Dùmarè to keep up with his work.

Written by: Bridget Eke