Books
Dougie Wallace’s books bring together his long-term social documentary projects, moving through nightlife, tourism, wealth, class, gentrification, dogs, city streets and public transport.
Shoreditch Wild Life
Shoreditch, London. Photographed over 18 years.
Published by Hoxton Mini Press, October 2014.
Collectors’ edition · Standard edition
Once associated with strip clubs, Shoreditch became one of London’s most popular nightspots. Dougie photographed its transformation from the inside, capturing everything from rampant exhibitionism to furtive drug-taking. The pictures are messy, absurd, funny and full of the concentrated energy of a changing square mile of east London.
Diane Smyth wrote about the work for the British Journal of Photography. Author and broadcaster Michael Smith described the pictures as charged with the chaotic life-force of Shoreditch.
Stags, Hens & Bunnies: A Blackpool Story
Blackpool, northwest England. September 2011–November 2013.
Published by Dewi Lewis Media, July 2014.
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Blackpool was once the granddaddy of British seaside resorts. In this book it becomes the setting for a riotous rite of passage: stag and hen parties, fancy dress, drinking games, laughter, fights, furry handcuffs and drunken oblivion. Dougie finds both humour and pathos in the weekend carnage, photographing a town heaving with bunny girls, banana men, devils, Brownies, nuns, nurses and last-night-of-freedom T-shirts.
Irvine Welsh praised the work for seeing humanity and pathos without patronising its subjects; Alan McGee described it as Blackpool captured in all its profligate glory.
Road Wallah
Mumbai, India. January 2011–March 2014.
Published by Dewi Lewis Publishing, February 2016.
Shortlisted for the European Book Publisher’s Award 2015 and selected as The Observer photography book of the month in January 2016.
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Premier Padmini taxis were introduced to Mumbai in the 1960s and have since almost disappeared. Over four years, Dougie documented these iconic black-and-yellow cabs as elaborate, mobile worlds: Bollywood music blasting from speakers, hypnotic upholstery, film stars, Hindu gods and goddesses, drivers working punishing shifts, passengers and the crowded city pressing in from every side.
Erik Vroons, then editor-in-chief of GUP, described the pictures as intense, dense and irresistibly authentic portraits of the drivers, their passengers and their disappearing cabs.
Harrodsburg
Knightsbridge, London. December 2013–October 2016.
Published by Dewi Lewis Publishing, February 2017.
Winner of the inaugural Magnum Photography Award in 2016.
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Harrodsburg examines the extreme wealth and consumerism surrounding Harrods and Knightsbridge. Gulf millionaires, oligarchs, hedge-fund wealth and the wider tribes of the global super-rich treat central London property as an appreciating asset rather than somewhere to live.
The book is a timely account of an ultra-affluent elite changing the face of the city, pricing out ordinary residents and even much of the upper middle class. Introduced by cultural commentator Peter York, it uses wit and an eye for the absurd to expose conspicuous consumption in direct, uncompromising detail.
Well Heeled
London, Milan, New York and Tokyo. January 2016–October 2017.
Published by Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2017.
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Well Heeled turns to man’s best friend and the strange world of the “pet parent”. Dogs and their owners took Dougie from London to Milan, New York and Tokyo, where grooming, clothing and accessories can cost as much as they do for children.
Shot from a dog’s-eye view, the pictures reveal claws, paw pads, incisors, wet noses and drool-drenched beards behind the crystal collars, designer leads and prams. The dogs have strong characters and knowing expressions, but their animal instincts keep breaking through the human theatre around them.
East Ended
Shoreditch, London. 2012–2019.
Published by Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2020.
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Street art was once treated simply as graffiti and a sign of urban decay. In Shoreditch it became part of the machinery of gentrification: a marker of grit and authenticity used to attract tourism, property investment and the creative class, even as rising costs forced out local residents and many of the artists who helped create the area’s identity.
East Ended sets commissioned murals for brands such as Adidas and Gucci beside poverty, street trading and cheeky protest posters pasted over advertising. It is a portrait of an east London neighbourhood becoming cooler, wealthier and increasingly uniform, while the voice of the street continues trying to reclaim its walls.
Bus Response
London during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Published by Dewi Lewis Publishing as a special limited edition of 100 signed and numbered copies.
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Since the start of the pandemic, Dougie photographed London’s changing streets, moods and people. The city’s iconic red buses run through the work, revealing both the social consequences of Covid-19 and the measures introduced to contain it: protective equipment, cancelled events, public warnings and ordinary life continuing in peculiar circumstances.
The large-format publication measures 420 × 300 mm and contains 37 colour plates across 48 pages. It is wiro-bound and presented in a box lined and bound in charcoal Wibalin.
Books featuring Dougie’s work
Alongside his own publications, Dougie’s photographs have appeared in numerous international photography books and anthologies.
Civilization: The Way We Live Now
Civilization: The Way We Live Now, Thames & Hudson, brings together work by 100 of the world’s leading photographers. It was produced in five language editions: English, Italian, German, Korean and Chinese.
Photography Masterclass: Creative Techniques of 100 Great Photographers
Dougie’s work is included in Photography Masterclass: Creative Techniques of 100 Great Photographers by Paul Lowe, published by Thames & Hudson.
Dogs
His photographs also appear in a new Hoxton Mini Press book on dogs.