Description

In the 1980s Chris Steele-Perkins turned his focus to England’s rapidly changing social landscape. His book The Pleasure Principle became an era-defining depiction of the country, the people, and life under Margaret Thatcher. Using the idea of “pleasure” and the pursuit of it, he explores a public, ritual face that cuts across class and location. Steele-Perkins wanted the photographs in this book to be, in a sense, about hedonism and our search for a better world. Pictured here, a Territorial Army practice repelling a mock Soviet invasion.

Everything shifts as you move, and different things come into focus at different points of your life, and you try to articulate that

Chris Steele-Perkins
© Chris Steele-Perkins | Magnum Photos

Chris Steele-Perkins was born in 1947 in Rangoon, Burma and at the age of two, moved to England with his father. At the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he studied psychology and worked for the student newspaper; he graduated with honors in 1970 and started to work as a freelance photographer, moving to London in 1971.

Steele-Perkins has produced some of the most iconic images of British society in the last half century, exploring youth subcultures, poverty and community with artful sensitivity. His more than 45-year career has seen him travel widely, making significant bodies of work in his home country of Myanmar, as well as Japan, Africa and Afghanistan, all of which have received critical acclaim.

Steele Perkins became a member of Magnum Photos in 1979 and continues to work in Britain and abroad.

© Chris Steele-Perkins | Magnum Photos

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