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.

Yasufumi Nakamori is Director of the Asia Society Museum, New York. He was formerly Senior Curator, International Art (Photography), Tate. Helen Little is Curator, British Art, Tate. Jasmine Kaur Chohan is Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art, Tate Britain. Bilal Akkouche is Assistant Curator, International Art at Tate Modern. Bilal is currently working on Middle East and North African Acquisitions Committee, the African Acquisition Committee and the upcoming Turbine Hall Commission 2024. Geoffrey Batchen is Professor of Art History at the University of Oxford. Derek Bishton is a journalist, photographer, and co-founder of the photographic magazine Ten.8. Taous R. Dahmani is an art historian, writer and curator specialising in photography. Mark Sealy is Director of Autograph ABP, the Association of Black Photographers. Noni Stacey is a writer and cultural historian.