Terry Dennett & Jo Spence: Our Studio Was The World

Terry Dennett (1938-2018) was a pioneering British photographer, curator, educator and theorist. A committed socialist, Dennett dedicated his career to using photography as a tool for political education, social documentation and cultural critique. From the 1970s onward, he collaborated closely with Jo Spence, co-founding the Photography Workshop. His long-running Crisis Project, which spanned nearly four decades, sought to accumulate visual evidence of social inequality and structural injustice in Britain. As a teacher and archivist, Dennett played a key role in shaping debates around photographic theory and practice, influencing generations of photographers and activists.

Jo Spence (1934-1992) was a British photographer, writer and cultural worker whose groundbreaking work helped to redefine the role of photography in feminist and radical practice. Beginning her career in commercial photography, she moved into documentary and political work in the 1970s, co-founding the Photography Workshop with Terry Dennett. Her practice combined autobiography, therapy and activism, most notably in projects such as The Picture of Health?, which chronicled her experience with breast cancer through the lens of photo therapy. Spence's work interrogated class, gender, and representation, challenging dominant visual narratives and advocating for photography as a means of personal and collective empowerment. Her influence endures in contemporary debates on identity, illness, and the politics of the image.