Capturing a Decade of British Identity: The ’80s Photography Exhibition in London
The Party’s Over: ‘The 80s, Photographing Britain‘ at Tate Britain
With over seventy lens-based artists active in the U.K. during the turbulent 1980s, this exhibition at Tate Britain captures the unmistakable sense that the party is over and no one is sure what’s coming next.
Margaret Thatcher was a British politician who served as Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990.
Born on October 13, 1925, she became the first female leader of the United Kingdom.
Known for her conservative policies, Thatcher implemented market-oriented reforms that transformed the UK's economy.
She played a key role in ending the Cold War and was a strong advocate for NATO.
Her leadership style was characterized by firm decisions and unyielding commitment to her principles.
Britain of the 1980s was a strange mixture of the future and the past. The future was marked by Margaret Thatcher‘s attacks on unions and domestic industry, which would soon spread throughout the rest of the world. The past, however, was characterized by the entrenchment of Albion as a special little storybook place, resulting in depraved and inbred nationalism.
This dichotomy is best illustrated by the writer Alan Moore, whose works V for Vendetta (1982-1985) and From Hell (1989) reached out along these two vectors to diagram a country that was, through its own actions, cursed. The worst of times are documented in the new show at Tate Britain, ‘The 80s: Photographing Britain.‘ Showcasing the work of over seventy lens-based artists working or showing in the U.K. during this tumultuous decade, the exhibition captures the feeling of a party being over and people unprepared for what comes next.
Martin Parr‘s first book, The Last Resort (1986), documented seaside Brighton as it went from garish resort town to post-industrial hellscape. His photographs, such as New Brighton, England (1983-85), show three generations of pallor at the beach, still repressing memories of the war, and gorge on Pepsi and crisps in unflattering bathing suits.
Martin Parr is a celebrated British photographer, known for his documentary and portrait photography.
Born in 1953 in Epsom, 'England' , Parr began his career as a staff photographer at the Sunday Times.
He has since published numerous books on his work, including 'Boring Postcards' (1986) and 'Small World' (1994).
Parr's photographs often focus on British eccentricity and everyday life, earning him critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the 'Deutsche Börse Photography Prize' in 2004.
Not all was joy in this era captured on film. However, there were moments of joy, like i-D magazine and great music. Included in this show is Buchholz + Buchholz Installation, Remix (1988-1992) by Wolfgang Tillmans, whose largest photo shows a woman at a club lost in closed-eyed bliss, allowing another pair of hands to run through her hair as if they were her own.
Anna Fox‘s Work Stations: Cafe, the City. Salesperson, 1988 (1988) also captures a kind of joy in England, with the man at the counter in that photo having his eyes open and unfocused as he prepares to take a giant mechanical bite of some ketchup-laden national dish.
A quality to color photography from this era is unmistakable; it’s both too bright and too dull at the same time. The black and white ones are just as surreal. Karen Knorr‘s Gentlemen series (1981-1983) offers a peep inside the terrifying gentlemen’s clubs of St. James, paired with captions taken from Parliamentary speeches.
Karen Knorr is a British photographer known for her work in documentary and fine art photography.
Born in 1957, she studied at the University of London and later at the St Martin's School of Art.
Knorr's photographs often explore themes of identity, culture, and social justice.
She has exhibited her work internationally and has published several books on her photography.
The converse to this would be the photographs taken by the AmberSide collective, which documented the plights of the Newcastle working class losing their jobs thanks to the efforts of The Iron Lady. These photos display that cherished stiff upper lip, said to get them through the war with an external enemy.
Perhaps what makes these such good photographs is the self-inflicted nature of the plights from this decade. These people were expressing their emotions about a country that had begun to devour itself from the inside. Similarly, in these photos, all the drama is turned inwards at the edges of the frame.
The exhibition ‘The 80s: Photographing Britain‘ is on view at Tate Britain through May 5th.
- observer.com | One Fine Show: “The 80s, Photographing Britain” in London
