For the latest issue of Dazed, photographer Michael Bodiam shot locations around the South East that accompany author John Heale’s feature about gangs spreading beyond the cities. Bodiam studied photography at the Art Institute at Bournemouth and worked in post-production for the likes of Nick Knight and Paolo Roversi. In response to Heale's article, Bodiam decided to focus on the location, keeping them entirely people-free and thus emphasising the bleakness that shadows British gang culture.  We speak to Bodiam about this series of images and also publish extra images not seen in the magazine.  

Dazed Digital: How did you embark on this particular series of images?
Michael Bodiam: I spend a lot of time shooting observational landscapes in and around london as it is but this particular series was a direct response to John’s written piece 'Going Country'. After reading the piece I then went about researching old news articles relating to gang culture in order to find out what had happened and where. There were many interesting stories but after visiting the locations it turned out that not all of them made for strong images: In order to develop the series it then became a matter of finding locations that were interesting and relevant in their subject matter and visually strong too.

DD: How did you approach the subjects at hand and how did you want to portray them?
Michael Bodiam: We (myself and Dazed photographic director Stephen Ledger-Lomas) decided that seeing as the text was descriptive and particular to certain individuals that the landscapes themselves should be unpeopled. This way, the images would act as blank canvas for the reader to imagine the scenes and people described in the text. The biggest hint of human presence in the series is the Billy Cox mural shot in the Fenwick Estate in Clapham, I felt that this was an important addition as it shows another side to the nature of gang culture - it's not just violence and aggression, there is sorrow and regret involved too.       

DD:  Do you have a particular favourite shot and why?
Michael Bodiam: I think that they all lend something different to the series as a whole but individually I like the car park shot with the burnt out car. I don't think that the shot would have worked so well if it were a beautiful sunny day as it would have told a different story but the overcast milky-white sky really worked well with the subject matter to create an interesting image.

Read John Heale’s feature on Britain’s widespread growth of gangs in the new June issue of Dazed out now.