“The 80s was really a time when we had our fingers on the pulse of the nation,” reflects the photographer Paul Reas. “Work made in this period anticipated much of what now defines modern Britain.” In his vivid South Wales series, made between 1985-88, Reas characteristically taps into the everyday: in one image a young family picks out wallpaper for a child’s bedroom – an indoor cigarette outdoing the photograph’s fashions in reminding us that this isn’t the present – while in another the scene appears fragmented, with a bed of daffodils filling half the frame and a driving instructor cleaning his car in the other. Nearly 40 years after they were taken, the two images feature in a room of colour photography in a mammoth new survey at Tate Britain, employed as a sort of temperature check on the social, political and economical shifts that defined the era.

The 80s: Photographing Britain begins in 1976 and concludes in 1993, a period defined as “the long 80s” by its curators, Yasufumi Nakamori, Helen Little and Jasmine Kaur Chohan, stretching the decade to include the years just prior and immediately following Margaret Thatcher’s time in office. Informed by Terry Dennett and Jo Spence’s 1979 anthology Photography: Politics One, the show features more than 350 images and archive materials (notable amongst them is a series of publications that highlight modifications in the medium and underscore its then-increasing popularity), considering why the 80s was a critical decade for photography, with works that negotiate social representation, cultural celebration and artistic expression, plus a healthy amount of protest. 

Below, seven photographers who appear in the show tell Dazed about the Britain they knew in the 80s, how it shaped their practice, and why it remains so significant. 

TOM WOOD

Born in County Mayo, Tom Wood is best known for photographing Liverpool and Merseyside between 1978 and 2001. In particular his Looking for Love series, showing at Tate, has become an iconic record of the late 20th century.

“I moved to Merseyside in 1978. I was 27, newly married, living a few minutes from the Chelsea Reach nightclub. Initially, I was an observer and a participant in the local scene, going to parties in the function room above the club. Using a small camera to do candid work, I’d casually take pictures of people I knew. Going downstairs into the actual club to get to the bar, it was always really crowded and I thought, ‘Wow, could I photograph this?’ I had worked at Butlins in 1977, photographing people at bars when they were kind of drunk – that’s kind of the sensibility I brought to the Chelsea Reach. 

I was an observer and a participant in the local scene, going to parties in the function room above the club... Using a small camera to do candid work – Tom Wood

“Gradually, having photographed some of the parties upstairs, it became easier and I did it seriously from about 1982; in 85/86 I’d go three nights a week, capturing the energy and excitement. It was a different place from Liverpool, where you had really high unemployment. New Brighton itself was a bit more affluent, and there was certainly a contrast between the riots in Liverpool and what was happening in the nightclub. 

“What’s significant for me is the fact that the Chelsea Reach didn’t signify anything in particular. If you wanted to see trendy, aspirational stuff you would go to Liverpool. What was interesting to me about the Chelsea Reach was that people were really ordinary. The women all dressed up, but it’s not something I thought about. I was just interested in making pictures that were real, which captured what was really happening. The key thing about the Chelsea Reach was it was unremarkable, so I was looking at body language and that kind of timeless stuff. That’s why the images now, 40 years later, are a historical document.”

PAUL REAS

Born in Bradford and now based in Cardiff, Paul Reas was an apprentice bricklayer before arriving at photography in 1982. His work, such as I Can Help (1988), centres on the working-class communities he grew up in.

“When I left Britain (for Germany in the 70s), there was a growing sense of radicalism. Returning in 1982, I found the radicalism had been corralled by a commercial and Thatcherite ideology, turning British culture from the ‘we’ to a ‘me’ generation. Deregulation of the banking system meant credit was easy to come by and consumer spending rose fast. Shopping malls were the new cathedrals of consumption and retail parks with supermarkets and furniture stores the parish churches. Shopping became leisure. 

Deregulation of the banking system meant credit was easy to come by and consumer spending rose fast. Shopping malls were the new cathedrals of consumption and retail parks with supermarkets and furniture stores the parish churches. Shopping became leisure – Paul Reas

“I studied documentary photography at Newport Art College from 1982 to 1984. Because of the Magnum connection [the course was founded by David Hurn], the philosophy was very much about creating working photographers who could function in the global editorial market. Teaching models were based on the photo essay and documentary work was predominantly black and white. Frustrated, I felt the picture essay was limiting as it had a tendency to oversimplify often complicated ideas.

“Many documentary photographers at that time were drawn to photographing the socially disadvantaged, or extreme or unusual aspects of society. I recall Martin Parr (a tutor) showing us the colour work he was doing in New Brighton and it divided opinion – some found the use of colour and flash vulgar, others were excited by his departure from expected visual narratives. He was making pictures of real situations but using metaphoric language. I found this idea very seductive and totally changed the way I thought about documentary photography, recognising that within those spaces lurked elements with the potential to be profound and prescient.”

SIRKKA-LIISA KONTTINEN

Finnish photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen first began taking pictures as a teenager. After moving to London in the 60s, she co-founded the Amber Collective in 1968, later relocating to Newcastle upon Tyne where she documented the Byker neighbourhood.

“In the 1980s, many industrial communities were cut adrift. It was a time of privatisation and protest, but also of new opportunities. When Channel 4 agreed to fund and screen films from alternative collectives under the 1982 Workshop Declaration, it opened doors in British television and cinema. The Britain I knew was through engagement with the Amber Film and Photography Collective, such as the anti-nuclear campaign documentary You Can’t Beat It Alone and the ‘soap’ series Shields Stories, on the effect of social policies on local communities. The 80s also had a good many state-supported galleries dedicated to photography, and was a time of stringent feminist debate about how to photograph women through a female gaze, taking many women photographers away from traditional documentary.

[The 80s] was a time of stringent feminist debate about how to photograph women through a female gaze, taking many women photographers away from traditional documentary – Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen

“The Ridges Estate was a housing estate for displaced residents from the North Shields slum clearances in the 1930s, upgraded to better quality housing in the 1960s and 1970s and renamed Meadow Well Estate. By the 1980s residents had taken ownership of the well-established neighbourhood and community, going to some lengths to make their home interiors speak of their personalities. In the spring of 1981, I was introduced to residents by an actress from Amber, whose family were among them. I captured their portraits in the midst of their everyday lives and saw the pride in their home interiors and visual comforts, created by whatever means were to hand. These became part of the story. Ten years on, the estate became national news through a night of devastating riots, and afterwards millions were spent on new housing and community facilities. To this day the stigma of the past hinders, but doesn’t halt, the efforts and hopes of the estate.”

ANNA FOX

Known for her satirical and innovative approach to documenting contemporary life, Anna Fox is perhaps best recognised for Work Stations, marrying otherwise ordinary scenarios with vibrant colour and social commentary.

“Thatcher was a powermonger and her favourite phrase, ‘there is no such thing as society, just individuals’ saw the end of a culture of community support and a rise in the pursuit of wealth for individuals – primarily white men. Compared to now, things in some ways were more straightforward, and as artists we knew what we were making work about – there was a positive sense that we could change things; we criticised society with hope fueling us. 

As artists we knew what we were making work about – there was a positive sense that we could change things; we criticised society with hope fueling us – Anna Fox

“I started my BA in photography in 1983 at the then West Surrey College of Art & Design, finding inspiration in tutors Martin Parr, Paul Graham and Karen Knorr. They were all concerned with making a comment on society, drawing attention to things that were hidden and making powerful statements about what needed to change. I followed this first in a conventional manner, before using a medium format camera with a large portable flash gun and combining texts with my images to underpin irony, aimed at raising questions.

“I made two key bodies of work in this period, including Work Stations – a study of London office life with found texts, creating satirical commentary on a very conservative Britain. I was interested in how consumerism was sweeping the floor with us and how money ruled. There were hardly any documentary images made of office life, it wasn’t considered a valid subject and this interested me. All documentary images change as time passes – design and style become more fascinating as they age – and I am so pleased these images have stayed in people’s imagination. They are a significant record of a particular time and they bring up a lot of memories of what it was like to live and work in it.”

JASON EVANS

Collaborating closely with the stylist Simon Foxton, much of Welsh photographer Jason Evans’ work made in the 80s and 90s is about subverting representations of national identity, often by combining symbols of class. 

“I was 12 in 1980, a curious kid looking for meanings. The miners’ strike galvanised me, made me realise everything was political. The Falklands debacle freaked me out, AIDS terrified me... Culturally it was very exciting, with John Peel on the radio and new style magazines, and you had new wave and post-punk at one end of the decade and rave at the other. There was a sense of pushing back, being defined by opposition. I went to art school in 1988 and made the work that features in this show in 1991. Thinking about the opportunities that were afforded me, compared with young people nowadays, the lack of parity is very disheartening.

You had new wave and post-punk at one end of the decade and rave at the other – Jason Evans

“This work was made in collaboration with Simon Foxton. It takes the head-to-toe ‘straight up’ documentary approach to street style as a point of departure, however they’re entirely constructed. We saw fashion photography as a political space where we could create something that pushed back at the media stereotypes of young Black men. This is a Trojan horse exercise, intended to disrupt the white supremacist media project. For many, it may be hard to imagine how racist the UK felt then, which, especially with hindsight, makes today’s politics all the harder to witness.

“The work feels like it has a life of its own now. I have met so many people who were touched by it; it’s a wonderful feeling. It’s also amazing to think about what Edward Enninful has achieved since he posed for us here. For me it was beginner’s luck – I’d never photographed a fashion shoot before but, for Simon Foxton, it was business as usual. He’s been disrupting the system all his creative life. As the photographer I get most of the credit, but Simon is doing all the heavy lifting.”

JOY GREGORY

An associate lecturer at the University of the Arts London, British-Jamaican photographer Joy Gregory is known for examining race, gender and cultural identity. At Tate, she’s presenting her renowned 1990 piece Autoportrait, and earlier experimental colour work.

“The 80s was really exciting. I was in my 20s, up for anything. At the beginning of the decade I was learning my trade, interested in the way the material worked, and in aesthetics and colour. I also became more politicised; working in various community situations I became much more aware of the fact that people didn’t have control of their image.

People find it hard to imagine, but I remember photographers saying they wouldn’t employ a woman unless they were doing food photography or interiors – Joy Gregory

“I got involved with Autograph, working with Sunil Gupta and Monika Baker, and Polareyes, the Black women’s photography magazine. We were very much outside of the mainstream, because of being of colour or Black, and also being women. People find it hard to imagine, but I remember photographers saying they wouldn’t employ a woman unless they were doing food photography or interiors. And you would read Evening Standard adverts saying ‘secretary wanted, no suntans need apply’, meaning anybody of colour. That was the 80s I grew up in. 

“My early work was about representing beauty and a particular aesthetic with its roots in painting – they’re very painterly images. The Autoportrait was really important because it was the first time I got a commission to make something that wasn’t exhibited in a library, and the first time I consciously made a self-portrait, deliberately to talk about something political. When I look at Autoportrait now, it is someone else. I was puzzled how it suddenly became this poster girl, but I love it.”

FRANKLYN RODGERS 

Described by cultural theorist Stuart Hall as a key figure in redefining Black British representation, at Tate the artist and creative director Franklyn Rodgers is showing work documenting London’s vibrant nightlife.

“80s Britain was a time of socio-political and economic discord, but it was also an adventure; a new frontier with ideas of redefinition. You had to make your mark with what you knew in a world that seemed indifferent. The discovery of the self, ubiquitous with teenage years, just behind me, a rite of passage took place, shaped in a distinctly contrasted post-colonial climate, which reflected a time of uncertainty in the British consciousness of identity. 

It was a battle for mental health, not just for me but for the young, Black first generation and how we were able to process and articulate how we felt. The Britain I knew was redefining itself – Franklyn Rodgers

“Sunday evenings religiously belonged to a musical ascension. That was the Aquarium at the Vox, understated, under-represented and in South London, defined by its particular connoisseurs who were driven by the love for rare groove, jazz and equal predilection to dance with vivacity, class, style and originality, echoing the diversity and quality of music. Documenting this space held a significant resonance, not just because of the value of recorded engagement but the context: when and where it sat, along with whom it ignited in a musically fragmented time. 

“Looking back, I drew strength from the internal, more so to make a sense of self. I remember my mother saying, ‘Franklyn, you can choose how you respond’, and there the adventure began. That time was very much about an articulated reflection of our voice, our choice, because there was a visual language in which we were not represented. It was a battle for mental health, not just for me but for the young, Black first generation and how we were able to process and articulate how we felt. The Britain I knew was redefining itself, a melting pot where different subcultures stood side by side visually and musically distinct. It was an exciting time of change, but great things do not come out of comfortable spaces.”

The 80s: Photographing Britain is running at Tate Britain from November 21 to May 5, 2025.