"No Such Thing As Society"

I was born in England and lived there until 1979 except for the short 1972-1976 period. I have very fond memories of this time: The kids of Mayflower Close, playing in Old Mill woods, exploring the Britannia Royal Naval College, long walks to the castle and long bike rides to Blackpool Sands and the model railway shop in Totnes. Except for the occasional bulling I was unaffected by the deep depression that was going on in society. The memorable moments of this for me where the scenes on TV of strikers clashing with the police, the conflict in Northern Ireland, and the growing political power of the hate groups like the National Front. The only personal memory of the turmoil were the black-outs by striking electrical workers.

Amazon.com reminded me of al this this morning with the notice of the new book No Such Thing As Society. The blurb says

"The human costs of de-industrialisation and globalisation were the great central themes of the documentary photographers active in the North of England in the late 70s and 80s. The social disasters captured in Chris Killip's work extended into the darkly coloured, claustrophobic interiors of DHSS offices photographed by Paul Graham, and Martin Parr's lividly coloured documents of holiday makers in New Brighton, Liverpool."

There are a few photos at the accompanying exhibition . The two that stood out for me were these.



The generational change shown by the suited man and the half-naked woman.



The punk more afraid of his world than frightening to it.