A turbulent decade riven by social and political change, the 1980s were also fertile ground for British photography
Tag: Austerity
Shot over two decades, Thatcher’s Children follows two generations of the Williams family, let down by the systemic failure of successive governments’ social policy
Tim Richmond’s latest photobook is a “love letter” to the people and places of a 20-mile stretch of coast in Southwest England
Luvera has collaborated with individuals experiencing homelessness for over 15 years. His latest exhibition, presented within a public space in central London, aims to shift the narrative
Luvera has collaborated with individuals experiencing homelessness for over 15 years. His latest exhibition, presented within a public space in central London, aims to shift the narrative
Shot over four years, Nelson’s new documentary hones in on a single street in Hackney, where 150-year-old eateries meet hipster coffee joints and £2m penthouse flats
“I believe that collective memory and individual experience, politics and personal beliefs, are interrelated,” says Yorgos Yatromanolakis, and it’s easy to see why. Born in Crete in 1986, he got into photography in December 2008 because he wanted to document the riots that broke out in Greece after a 15 year-old, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, was shot dead by the police. Shot in grainy black-and-white and printed by Yatromanolakis, the resulting images were later self-published as a book, Roadblock to Normality.
“Roadblock to Normality is a small, personal, but at the same time collective notebook emanating from my participation in political and social movements in my country,” says Yatromanolakis. “It certainly captures, in a subjective way, some critical political events.”
Invisible Britain, a forthcoming book of portraits, shows people who have been left out of the media narrative and left behind by government policy – people who for whatever reason fell on hard times, and found there was little or no support, beyond what they might be able to set up for themselves. Running through the book are references to austerity, the programme of public spending cuts introduced in the UK after the recession, and the impact it’s had on the people here – whether it’s in the lack of support for the full-time carer Greg, who ended up committing suicide, or the patchy probation offered to Matt, who’s spent the last decade falling in and out of prison. The spectre of Brexit also looms, and the uncertain future, but all too obvious intolerance, it’s brought in its wake.