The New Mods Seen

It's fairly shameful to write about somebody that you know, but when that somebody is a remarkably talented fucker who needs no help from anyone to be even more successful than he already is, then all that guilt evaporates. Said talented fucker is NME photographer, film-maker, DJ and quiff-brandisher Dean Chalkey, whose latest exhibition,  The New Faces, is parking itself at the Book Club 100 on Leonard Street in the capital between 5th March and 29th April.

Focusing on the current manifestation of the mod scene, The New Faces shows how few people are as attuned to the unfuckwithable appeal of youth culture as Dean. His relentless passion for it always shows through; his club scenes constantly nail the messy energy of those throwaway moments, adeptly capturing the embryonic cell division that takes place as timeless memories are formed, as previous exhibition Southend's Underground proved - it paid as much of a tribute to the kids who made up the numbers at the scene as it did figureheads The Horrors. "Music isn’t just about the rock star on the stage," Chalkey told the NME. "It has a deeper effect and significance seeping into the soul of people."


Not only that, his NME cover shots and commercial ad campaigns for the likes of Channel 4 always imbue the subject with optimum depth and character, capturing some small detail or expression that helps the makes the shot exist beyond the frame and define apearance and personality in equal measure, whether it's Simon Cowell's shit-eating condescension or Noel Gallagher's carefully measured insolence.

So you could do a lot worse than getting yourself down there and taking The New Faces in, don't you think?