Exhibition dates: 29th January – 11th June 2023

Curator: The exhibition is curated by Kara Felt, assistant curator of art at the Denver Botanic Gardens and a former Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow in the department of photographs at the National Gallery of Art, with the organisational assistance of Diane Waggoner, Curator of Photographs, National Gallery of Art.

 

 

Gilles Peress (French, b. 1946)
NORTHERN IRELAND. Belfast. Summer evening
1989
Gelatin silver print
Corcoran Collection
Museum Purchase with funds donated by the Marlin Miller, Jr. Family Foundation and by exchange: John Bryant and Patricia Bauman

 

 

I lived through these years in Britain.

Strikes, unemployment, high inflation and economic failure
New Right, monetarist ideas and the free market economy
The Troubles
The Winter of Discontent
The queens silver jubilee
Glam Rock, punk and then New Romantics; disco and then HiNRG
Aston Martin, Triumph TR7, two door Capri and MGB GT
Falklands War
Charles and Diana
1984-1985 miners’ strike
Recession
North-South divide
Gay Liberation, women’s liberation
Clause 28
HIV/AIDS
Brixton Riots (September 1985)
Racism and the National Front
Victorian values and moral behaviour vs the permissive society

and Margaret Thatcher

That one name still sends shivers down my spine.

The photographs in this posting capture the grittiness of those years… and the surreality of the lived experience. From my perspective, I worked really hard and partied even harder at clubs such as Scandals, Adams, Bang and Heaven. I spent as much as I earnt and careered around London in my beloved Mini 1275 GT as fast as I could, listening to David Bowie, Barry White and the Love Unlimited Orchestra, Pink Floyd, and the inimitable Grace Jones.

In black and white, Graham Smith’s Bennetts Corner (Giro Corner), the Erimus Club and Commercial Pub, South Bank, Middlesbrough (1982, below) perfectly encapsulates the depressive, dank mood of the country during these years. The meaning of “Giro corner” in the title references a place where people would go, in this case two pubs, to spend their Giro cheque: an unemployment or income support payment by giro cheque, posted fortnightly.

In colour, Martin Parr’s two photographs of New Brighton, Merseyside (1984, below) reference the absurdity of the British at play: leisure time in “new” Brighton on Mersyside in North West England (many miles from the affluent Brighton on the south coast of England) – eating surrounded by rubbish and relaxing on a hard concrete ramp with crying baby, while other artists capture the isolation of individuals, their working class lives and middle class pretensions.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to the National Gallery of Art for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

Profound changes in British society in the 1970s and 1980s inspired a revolution in British photography. This Is Britain highlights the socially conscious photographers who captured this moment in time, among them Vanley Burke, Pogus Caesar, Anna Fox, Paul Graham, Sunil Gupta, Chris Killip, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, and Martin Parr. The exhibition features some 45 newly acquired prints in the National Gallery of Art’s collection. It brings together works by photographers who explored the national identity as Britain grappled with deindustrialisation, uprisings in inner cities, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the controversial policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The exhibition also includes Handsworth Songs (1986, below), a 59-minute film on the uprisings that rocked London and Birmingham in 1985. It was produced by the Black Audio Film Collective and directed by John Akomfrah. The exhibition is organised by the National Gallery of Art.

Text from the National Gallery of Art website

 

 

Anna Fox (British, b. 1961)
Advertising Agency, Docklands Enterprise Zone
1988
From the series Work Stations
Chromogenic print
Image (visible): 44.5 x 54.8 cm (17 1/2 x 21 9/16 in.)
Framed: 68.5 x 83.8 cm (26 15/16 x 33 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Anna Fox (British, b. 1961)
Conference and Exhibitions Organiser, Euston. Personal Assistant to the Director
1988, printed later
From the series Work Stations
Chromogenic print
Image (visible): 44.5 x 54.8cm (17 1/2 x 21 9/16 in.)
Framed: 68.5 x 83.8cm (26 15/16 x 33 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Anna Fox (British, b. 1961)
Cafe, the City. Salesperson
1988
From the series Work Stations
Chromogenic print
Image (visible): 44.5 x 54.8cm (17 1/2 x 21 9/16 in.)
Framed: 68.5 x 83.8cm (26 15/16 x 33 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Britain experienced profound changes in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was racked by deindustrialization, urban uprisings, the controversial policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Photography became a central form of creative expression during this period, supported and disseminated through new schools, galleries, artists’ collectives, magazines, and government funding.

This Is Britain brings together the work of a generation of photographers who were commenting on the deep unrest of these pivotal decades. Vanley Burke, Pogus Caesar, Anna Fox, Paul Graham, Sunil Gupta, Chris Killip, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Martin Parr, and others pictured communities, traditions, and landscapes affected by Britain’s shifting social and economic realities. Together, they photographed a nation redefining what it meant to be British and, ultimately, modern.

Text from the National Gallery of Art website

 

Profound changes in British society in the 1970s and 1980s inspired a revolution in British photography. This Is Britain: Photographs from the 1970s and 1980s highlights the work of socially conscious photographers who captured this period of unrest. The exhibition features some 45 newly acquired prints by Vanley Burke, Pogus Caesar, Anna Fox, Paul Graham, Sunil Gupta, Chris Killip, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Martin Parr, and others. It brings together photographers who examined national identity as Britain grappled with deindustrialisation, uprisings in inner cities, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the sometimes controversial policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. On view on the Ground Floor of the National Gallery’s West Building from January 29 through June 11, 2023, the exhibition also features the film Handsworth Songs (1986). The 59-minute film, produced by the Black Audio Film Collective and directed by John Akomfrah, explores uprisings in London and Birmingham in 1985. Reece Auguiste, a member of the Black Audio Film Collective, is the guest curator for an accompanying film program.

Beginning in the 1970s, photography gained its contemporary prominence in Britain, with a rapidly expanding network of galleries, artists’ collectives, schools, and magazines dedicated to promoting the medium. Immigrants and artists of colour, reflecting Britain’s growing multiculturalism, introduced fresh perspectives, as did the many women who entered the field. A generation of young photographers moved from largely black-and-white, documentary styles to more conceptual and often humorous projects in colour in the 1980s. As photographers forged new directions, they pictured a country redefining what it meant to be British and, ultimately, modern.

“This Is Britain tells history on an intimate scale, highlighting stories we may have otherwise missed. The addition of these photographs to the National Gallery’s collection allows us to reflect on two decades of artistic innovation and celebrate the talented, diverse group of creators who captured them. We hope that this exhibition inspires visitors, as they contemplate some of the highs and lows experienced by British citizens in the ’70s and ’80s,” said Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art.

Exhibition overview

This Is Britain: Photographs from the 1970s and 1980s focuses on the work of photographers who recorded ways of life that were under threat or disappearing in those tumultuous decades. John Davies’s expansive view of Agecroft Power Station, Salford (1983​) emphasises the displacement of industrial structures. Paul Graham’s​ elegiac series A1: The Great North Road (1982​) examines the shift away from the A1 – a major thoroughfare from London to Edinburgh – to the newer, more direct M1 motorway, resulting in businesses along the former highway to suffer. With their forlorn colours and barren spaces, his pictures challenged the expectation that photography on social themes should be in black and white. Reflecting Britain’s growing immigration and multiculturalism during this period of modernisation, Vanley Burke’s Boy with Flag, Winford in Handsworth Park (1970) pictures a Black youth proudly displaying the Union Jack from his bike.

Many artists in the 1980s continued exploring colour photography, using intense hues inspired by advertising to poke fun at the rise of leisure activities, consumerism, and corporate greed. The series The Last Resort (1983-1986) by Martin Parr, arguably Britain’s most influential living photographer, surveys seaside tourists in New Brighton with acerbic wit. Chris Steele-Perkins​’s decade-long project The Pleasure Principle (1980-1989) captures Margaret Thatcher’s England through surreal images, such as Hypnosis Demonstration, Cambridge University Ball. Six photographs from Anna Fox’s Work Stations (1987-1988​) signal the competition and stress of London office life in the late 1980s. Sunil Gupta strikes a more polemical tone in his series “Pretended” Family Relationships (1988) by responding to Thatcher’s policy prohibiting the promotion of gay and lesbian lifestyles.

The final room presents Handsworth Songs (1986, 59 minutes), a landmark nonfiction film that connects the civil unrest in London and the Handsworth section of Birmingham in 1985 with Britain’s colonial past, weaving contemporary reports and interviews with historical footage and photographs. The film, produced by the Black Audio Film Collective and directed by the acclaimed filmmaker John Akomfrah, features a soundtrack that mixes reggae and post-punk with industrial noises and voiceovers.

Press release from the National Gallery of Art, Washington

 

 

Martin Parr (British, 1952-2025)
New Brighton, Merseyside
1984
From the series The Last Resort
Chromogenic print
Image: 26.67 x 33.02cm (10 1/2 x 13 in.)
Sheet: 30.48 x 40.64cm (12 x 16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
© Martin Parr, Courtesy Rocket Gallery

 

 

Martin Parr (British, 1952-2025)
New Brighton, Merseyside
1984
From the series The Last Resort
Chromogenic print
Image: 26.67 × 33.02cm (10 1/2 × 13 in.)
Sheet: 30.48 × 40.64cm (12 × 16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
© Martin Parr, Courtesy Rocket Gallery

 

 

Punk Rock, record unemployment, urban uprisings, Margaret Thatcher, the Troubles in Northern Ireland: profound changes shook British society and inspired a revolution in photography in the 1970s and 1980s. A generation of young photographers used their cameras to comment on the deep unrest of these pivotal decades. With a keen eye for social critique and a spirit of rebellion, they photographed a country redefining what it meant to be British and, ultimately, modern.

Photography during this period became a central form of creative expression, fuelled by a rapidly expanding network of galleries, museum departments, artists’ collectives, schools, and magazines dedicated to the medium. Immigrants and artists of colour, reflecting the nation’s growing multiculturalism, introduced new perspectives, as did the many women who entered the field.

Moving from largely black-and-white, documentary styles toward more conceptual projects in colour, photographers adopted new strategies to examine national identity. In the face of severe economic dislocation, widespread civil disorder, and Prime Minister Thatcher’s controversial policies, these artists declared: This is Britain.

Documenting the Deindustrial Revolution

The decline of British heavy industry in the 1970s led to labor disputes and high unemployment in the early 1980s. As the country prioritised modern technologies and greater efficiency, photographers recorded the communities, structures, and ways of life that were under threat or disappearing. Graham Smith and Vanley Burke portrayed people they had known for decades, while Chris Killip, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, and Gilles Peress undertook long-term projects to create intimate yet often bleak photographs of life on the margins of society. Paul Graham and John Davies explored England’s uneasy embrace of the future by showing the people and places being left behind. While these photographers held no real hope of inspiring change, they shared an earnest concern for who and what was being lost as the nation modernised.

Picturing Absurdity in the Thatcher Years

As the leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 and as prime minister from 1979 to 1990, Margaret Thatcher was a polarising figure in Britain. She oversaw the development of an American-style free market economy, the resurgence of British nationalism, and major cutbacks to public spending (famously declaring that “there is no such thing” as society). During the Thatcher years, photographers Martin Parr and Anna Fox used the brash colours of advertising to poke fun at the rise of leisure activities, consumerism, and corporate greed. Combining text and image, Karen Knorr and Sunil Gupta considered how traditional English institutions sidelined women, people of colour, and gay and lesbian communities. Their works openly satirise long-held traditions and question emerging values in British society.

Wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Tony Ray-Jones (English, 1941-1972)
Butlin’s Holiday Camp, Scarborough
1968
Gelatin silver print
Image: 15.8 x 24.8cm (6 1/4 x 9 3/4 in.)
Sheet: 35.8 x 28cm (14 1/8 x 11 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Karen Knorr (American born Germany, b. 1954)
A mood of Highly Coloured Naturalism
1983
From the series Country Life
Gelatin silver print mounted on board
Image: 40.2 x 40.9cm (15 13/16 x 16 1/8 in.)
Sheet: 60.7 x 51cm (23 7/8 x 20 1/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Karen Knorr (American born Germany, b. 1954)
Newspapers are no longer ironed, Coins no longer boiled So far have Standards Fallen
1981-1983, printed 2015
From the series Gentlemen
Gelatin silver print
Image: 40.6 × 40.5cm (16 × 15 15/16 in.)
Sheet: 61.5 × 50.7cm (24 3/16 × 19 15/16 in.)
Mat: 71 × 55.8cm (27 15/16 × 21 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Karen Knorr (American born Germany, b. 1954)
We owe it to the Free world not to Allow Brutal Forces to succeed. When the Rule of law Breaks down, the World takes a further Step towards Chaos
1981-1983, printed 2015
From the series Gentlemen
Gelatin silver print
Image: 40.5 x 40.7cm (15 15/16 x 16 in.)
Sheet: 60.8 x 50.5cm (23 15/16 x 19 7/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Chris Killip (Isle of Man, 1946-2020)
Margaret, Rosie, and Val, Seacoal Camp, Lynemouth, Northumberland
1983
Gelatin silver print
Image: 40.5 x 50.5cm (15 15/16 x 19 7/8 in.)
Sheet: 47.8 x 57.6cm (18 13/16 x 22 11/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Chris Killip (Isle of Man, 1946-2020)
Crabs and People, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, UK
1981
Gelatin silver print
Image: 39.9 × 48.9cm (15 11/16 × 19 1/4 in.)
Sheet: 50.7 × 59.7cm (19 15/16 × 23 1/2 in.)
Mat: 56 × 71.2cm (22 1/16 × 28 1/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
© Chris Killip Photography Trust / Magnum Photos, Courtesy Augusta Edwards Fine Art

 

 

Colin Jones (English, 1936-2021)
The Black House, London
1973-1976
Gelatin silver print
Image: 33.8 x 49.1cm (13 5/16 x 19 5/16 in.)
Sheet: 41 x 50.8cm (16 1/8 x 20 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Vanley Burke (British born Jamaica, b. 1951)
Young Men on See-Saw, Handsworth Park, Birmingham
1984, printed 2021
Gelatin silver print
Image: 30.1 x 45.4cm (11 7/8 x 17 7/8 in.)
Sheet: 40.4 x 50.5cm (15 7/8 x 19 7/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Vanley Burke (British born Jamaica, b. 1951)
Boy with Flag, Winford in Handsworth Park
1970, printed 2022
Gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (Finland, b. 1948)
Young Couple in a Backyard on a Summer’s Day
1975, printed 2012
Gelatin silver print
Image: 36.1 × 39.3cm (14 3/16 × 15 1/2 in.)
Sheet: 40.4 × 50.5cm (15 7/8 × 19 7/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund Courtesy L. Parker Stephenson Photographs

 

 

John Davies (British, b. 1949)
Agecroft Power Station, Salford
1983
Gelatin silver print
Image: 37.6 × 56.1cm (14 13/16 × 22 1/16 in.)
Sheet: 50.5 × 60.4cm (19 7/8 × 23 3/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund Courtesy L. Parker Stephenson Photographs

 

 

Graham Smith (British, b. 1947)
The Queen’s Pub, Southbank, Middlesbrough
1981
Gelatin silver print
Image: 17.8 × 22.8cm (7 × 9 in.)
Sheet: 21.8 × 26.8cm (8 9/16 × 10 9/16 in.)
Mat: 28 × 35.6cm (11 × 14 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
© Graham Smith, Courtesy Augusta Edwards Fine Art

 

 

Graham Smith (British, b. 1947)
Bennetts Corner (Giro Corner), the Erimus Club and Commercial Pub, South Bank, Middlesbrough
1982, printed 2008
Gelatin silver print
Image: 37.4 x 47cm (14 3/4 x 18 1/2 in.)
Sheet: 47.7 x 57.4cm (18 3/4 x 22 5/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Paul Graham (British, b. 1956)
Café Assistants, Compass Café, Colsterworth, Lincolnshire
November 1982
Chromogenic print
Image: 19.4 x 24cm (7 5/8 x 9 7/16 in.)
Sheet: 27.4 x 35cm (10 13/16 x 13 3/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Paul Graham (British, b. 1956)
Little Chef in Rain, St. Neots, Cambridgeshire
May 1982
Chromogenic print
Image: 24.2 x 30.6cm (9 1/2 x 12 1/16 in.)
Sheet: 27.9 x 35.7cm (11 x 14 1/16 in.)
Mat: 35.5 x 45.8cm (14 x 18 1/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
© Paul Graham, courtesy Pace Gallery

 

 

Tom Wood (Irish, b. 1951)
Between Chester and Birkenhead
1989
Vintage gelatin silver print
Image: 17.2 x 26.1cm (6 3/4 x 10 1/4 in.)
Sheet: 27.9 x 35.2cm (11 x 13 7/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Tom Wood (Irish, b. 1951)
Lime Street
1995, printed 1997
Analogue hand print
Image: 19 x 25.6 cm (7 1/2 x 10 1/16 in.)
Sheet: 19.8 x 27.2cm (7 13/16 x 10 11/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

 

Sunil Gupta on Community and Activism

Sunil Gupta, photographer, curator, writer, and activist has maintained a visionary approach to photography, producing bodies of work with keen social and political commentary. Gupta’s diasporic experience of multiple cultures informs a practice dedicated to themes of race, migration, and queer identity. His photographic projects – born from a desire to see himself and others like him represented in art history – draw upon his own life as a point of departure.

The Arnold Newman Lecture Series on Photography provides a forum for leading photographers, primarily known for portraits, to discuss contemporary issues in the medium. Arnold Newman (1918-2006) is acknowledged as one of the great masters of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries whose work changed portraiture. The Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation generously supported this series to make such conversations available to the public.

Text from the YouTube website

 

 

Sunil Gupta (Canadian born India, b. 1953)
Untitled #1
1988, printed 2020
From the series “Pretended” Family Relationships
Inkjet print
Image: 61 x 91.4cm (24 x 36 in.)
Sheet: 63.5 x 94cm (25 x 37 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
© Sunil Gupta

 

 

Pogus Caesar (British born St. Kitts, b. 1953)
Handsworth Riots: Birmingham, United Kingdom
September 1985, printed 2022
Gelatin silver print
Image: 50.8 × 60.96cm (20 × 24 in.)
Sheet: 41.6 × 57.4cm (16 3/8 × 22 5/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
© Pogus Caesar/OOM Gallery Archive, ARS, New York, DACS, London

 

 

Handsworth Songs (1986)

A landmark in nonfiction filmmaking, Handsworth Songs was the first film directed by the Ghanaian-born artist John Akomfrah. It was produced by the Black Audio Film Collective (1982-1998), a group of experimental Black artists who examined the diasporic African and Asian experience in Britain. The film weaves archival footage with scenes, interviews, and pictures from contemporary events, including photographs by Vanley Burke, with a haunting soundtrack that mixes reggae and post-punk music with industrial noises and voiceovers. This layered structure connects Britain’s colonial past with unrest in London’s Tottenham and Brixton neighbourhoods and Birmingham’s Handsworth area in 1985. Today, Handsworth Songs reveals the solidarity shared by Britons of African and Asian descent in the face of inequality as it brings historical perspective to civil disturbances in the 1980s.

This film includes depictions of police violence and the use of racial slurs. Viewer discretion is advised.

Wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Chris Steele-Perkins (British, b. 1947)
Hypnosis Demonstration, Cambridge University Ball
1980-1989
Silver dye bleach print
Image: 25.4 × 38.1cm (10 × 15 in.)
Sheet: 30.2 × 40.4cm (11 7/8 × 15 7/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

Paul Reas (British, b. 1955)
Constable County, Flatford Mill, Suffolk
c. 1992
From the series Flogging a Dead Horse
Inkjet print image: 41 x 50.5cm (16 1/8 x 19 7/8 in.)
Sheet: 50.5 x 61cm (19 7/8 x 24 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

 

 

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