The 80s

Taking you behind the lens during a decade of significant social and political change, discover the remarkable transformation of British photography in the 1980s, and its impact on art across the world.

This book traces critical developments in photographic art in the UK, made by a diverse range of photographers in and around the Thatcher era (1976–1993). Rather than presenting a comprehensive history, the publication showcases more than 70 lens-based artists, and reveal numerous small histories, known and unknown, presented by a constellation of image makers, photography journals, photographer collectives, and theorists. Close attention is paid to the intersection between photography and the British Black arts movement, and to the theoretical developments in photography and representation from the perspectives of postmodernism and cultural theory by British scholars from the period.

Photographers include Don McCullin, Martin Parr, Ingrid Pollard, Sunil Gupta, Wolfgang Tillmans, Keith Arnatt, Vanley Burke, Sirkka-Liisa Kontinnen, Marketa Luskacova, Joy Gregory, Paul Graham, Ajamu X, and many more key figures.