Community Photography: Radicalism and a Culture of Protest in the London-based Photography Collectives of the 1970s

‘Community photography’ in the London-based photography collectives was born of the social and political conditions in Britain in the 1970s. It drew impetus from protest within the Women’s Liberation Movement, and experience from political campaigns on childcare, sub-standard housing, the rebuilding and regeneration of inner cities, poor working conditions and racism. Britain was in the throes of an extensive legislative programme that sought to enshrine the rights and responsibilities of its citizens with respect to race, gender and employment. Community photography employed the tactics and practices of the counterculture and alternative media. The collectives examined in this thesis are: The Hackney Flashers Collective, Exit Photography Group, Half Moon Photography Workshop, producers of Camerawork magazine, and the community darkrooms, North Paddington Community Darkroom and Blackfriars Photography Project. These collectives were interrelated, and many of the photographers involved worked for, or wrote for, the radical photography magazine, Camerawork. Community photography built on the traditions of socially concerned documentary photography whilst challenging the conventions of photojournalism. These collectives exhibited radicality in their working methods and in their ability to harness economic and political information within their photographic projects. In its different guises, community photography encompassed the dissolution of barriers between the photographer and subject, as well as the transfer of photographic skills from the photographer to the subject. In this way, these collectives engaged with the emerging photo-theory that centred on the way in which people were represented, where, and by whom, and on the subsequent deconstruction of these images. This research considers the position of community photography in British photographic history. This thesis constitutes an original contribution to knowledge as it draws on hitherto unexamined and hidden archival material, and substantial new interviews with those involved, to explore

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