On the road again
The early 1980s in Britain. A time of Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher, rising unemployment, industrial action, war in Northern Ireland and New Wave music. Black & white photography dominated, the 35mm camera and 50mmm lens prevailed. Front-page press photographs were stark and often shot close. Martin Parr had published his first book, Bad Weather, in black & white. Colour photography was rare, it was happy, decorative, largely derided and dismissed by the photo-establishment. Colour was used by amateur photographers for family and holiday snaps.
Throughout 1981 and 1982, photographer Paul Graham photographed the life and landscape along Britain’s longest numbered road. A year later, he self-published It was large-format photography, shot in colour, at a distance. It was controversial. It was brilliant. When I first viewed the book at art college in 1990, I knew it was a journey I would one day make. I’d never seen or been to the, 1985, documenting the conditions in social security and unemployment benefit offices across Britain, and , 1986, dealing with signs of deep political division within the landscape of Northern Ireland at the time of the Troubles – both of which became iconic bodies of work and also to be republished by MACK).
