Britain experienced profound changes in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was racked by deindustrialization, urban uprisings, the controversial policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Photography became a central form of creative expression during this period, supported and disseminated through new schools, galleries, artists’ collectives, magazines, and government funding.
This Is Britain brings together the work of a generation of photographers who were commenting on the deep unrest of these pivotal decades. Vanley Burke, Pogus Caesar, Anna Fox, Paul Graham, Sunil Gupta, Chris Killip, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Martin Parr, and others pictured communities, traditions, and landscapes affected by Britain’s shifting social and economic realities. Together, they photographed a nation redefining what it meant to be British and, ultimately, modern.
This Is Britain
Photographs from the 1970s and 1980s
January 29 – June 11, 2023
National Gallery of Art
West Building, Ground Floor, Galleries G27–G29
https://www.nga.gov
Graham Smith, The Queen’s Pub, Southbank, Middlesbrough, 1981, gelatin silver print, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, 2019.82.1
Chris Killip, Crabs and People, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, UK, 1981, gelatin silver print, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, 2019.76.2
Colin Jones, The Black House, London, 1973–1976, gelatin silver print, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, 2020.131.1
John Davies, Agecroft Power Station, Salford, 1983, gelatin silver print, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, 2018.99.2
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Young Couple in a Backyard on a Summer’s Day, 1975, printed 2012, gelatin silver print, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, 2018.108.2
Pogus Caesar, Handsworth Riots: Birmingham, United Kingdom, September 1985, printed 2022, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, © Pogus Caesar/OOM Gallery Archive, ARS, New York, DACS, London
Vanley Burke, Boy with Flag, Winford in Handsworth Park, 1970, printed 2022, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
