British painter, photographer, photo-historian, and writer. Ovenden studied at the Royal College of Music and Southampton School of Art and graduated from the Royal College of Art (1968). He was a founder of the Brotherhood of Ruralists (1975). His work is extremely controversial, and he was prosecuted but not found guilty for a production of hoax calotypes which he claimed were of Victorian street children (1980). In the 1990s, his work was investigated by the US and UK authorities as possible child pornography. (2009) He was charged by the UK for creating indecent images, but the trials collapsed. A few years later, Ovenden was found guilty of six charges of indecency with a child and one charge of indecent assault relating to the girls who modelled for him (2013). Many of his pieces have been either confiscated by the British government, banned by both countries, destroyed, or rendered inaccessible.