Hope. Struggle. Change: Photographing Britain and the World 1945–1979

Through a series of remarkable images, this book examines the moments – both intimate occasions and events on the global stage – that contributed to the development of the UK from 1945, the year of peace, to the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979. It was both a time of hope – as Europe’s empires collapsed in Africa and Asia – and a time of painful struggle during the Civil Rights and Cold War era. Britain in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s was altered indelibly: shaped by de-colonization and mass immigration; by de-industrialization at home; and by the struggle for new economic and political influence abroad after the collapse of empire. As well as featuring some of the biggest names in twentieth-century photography – Lee Miller, Bill Brandt Larry Burrows, Margaret Bourke-White, Henri Cartier-Bresson and David Goldblatt – the book will also shine light on less well-known yet exceptional photographers: Rashid Talukdar, Ernest Cole, Bandele ‘Tex’ Ajetunmobi Li Zhensheng, Thurston Hopkins, Gilles Caron, Shirley Baker and Paul Trevor.