Chris Steele-Perkins

Born in Burma, Chris Steele-Perkins grew up in England from the age of two. This multi award-winning photographer began working as a freelance photographer from 1970 moving to London in 1971. Social concerns within British cities and poverty at home and abroad have been a constant in his work, throughout a prolific career.

Steele-Perkins joined the Viva agency in 1976. His first monograph The Teds was published in 1979, in the same year he joined Magnum Photos. This work now stands as a seminal series documenting the life and play of this distinctive subculture, resulting in classic imagery firmly placed in the photographic canon.

This multi award-winning photographer has also worked extensively in Afghanistan, Africa Central America, Lebanon and Japan. His photographs explore the lives and situations of his subjects with respect and informed compositions, always revealing the humanity within them. His work in Afghanistan was taken over the course of four years in the centre of the complicated civil war. Ordinary people are sensitively pictured trying to cope with the realities of war. The animated photograph of a bushkashi game places Steele-Perkins at the forefront of the action, as he has continued to be throughout his career.

He is currently accepting volunteers to sit for his Londoners: The New British project. To see the BBC coverage on the work so far click this link.

To see full details of this project, or to volunteer to participate please see our Facebook and Twitter pages.

To learn more about the project and Chris’s process watch this fascinating in conversation with our director Laura Noble. Find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruCJUTrJlbk&t=383s