The 1980s were an explosive decade for Britain, marked by profound social, economic, and political changes amidst the rise of neoliberalism. Although Margaret Thatcher, with her blue suits and severe helmet of blonde hair, is scarcely represented in the exhibition—she appears in only two of the roughly 350 images — Thatcherism and its repercussions are at stake here. A double edge ideology that is powerfully embodied by the curators’ clever juxtaposition of Martin Parr’s iconic series The Cost of Living, an exuberant portrait of the rising middle class, and Paul Graham’s Beyond Caring, which expresses the grim reality of unemployment.
From the very first room, the tone is set with documentation of the many protests that defined the era, from the miners’ strike and Greenham Common to the Northern Ireland conflict and the LGBT movement. Originally meant to be focused on documentary photography, the exhibition soon expanded to explore the different paths photography took in response to the seismic shifts of the 1980s. One room is dedicated to landscapes, a genre deeply popular in England, which photographers like Ingrid Pollard reimagined through a more conceptual and eminently political approach. Another room delves into the theoretical development of photography with a focus on the pioneering work of Victor Burgin, who blended image and text to address themes such as labor, racial issues, and the notion of community. The exhibition also features a compelling dialogue between Jo Spence and Maud Sulter, whose work challenges photography’s colonial and sexist past through a collaborative lens.
