Prints and Drawings Room
View by appointment- Artist
- Chris Steele-Perkins born 1947
- Part of
- The Pleasure Principle
- Medium
- Photograph, dye destruction on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 382 × 254 mm
support: 406 × 304 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased with funds provided by the Photography Acquisitions Committee 2016
- Reference
- P82050
Summary
The Pleasure Principle 1980–9 is a set of forty-four colour cibachrome photographic prints depicting scenes of leisure and enjoyment in Britain in the 1980s. The subjects of the photographs range from youth culture and sport to political associations and countryside hobbies. The collection also includes a portrait of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In each case, Steele-Perkins highlighted what he considered to be specifically ‘British’ pursuits and activities, prompting a reflection on the state of British society. Returning to England after spending time photographing abroad, Steele-Perkins experienced a kind of culture shock. He has described how:
I was not interested in polemics, or a fashionable cynicism. I wanted to re-orientate myself. I found myself returning to the public rituals we employ in the pursuit of happiness. For there we display our identity as we would like it to be. There we make signals to each other about who we are, and about what we believe in. Looking through this haze of signals with a tangential glance, a curious eye, reveals some unintended things.
(Chris Steele-Perkins, ‘The Pleasure Principle: A Picture of 1980s Britain at Play’)
Through this series of colour images, which fully engage with the potential of colour film to bring the world to life through the camera lens, Steele-Perkins presents a particular view of the social and leisure activities people employ in the pursuit of happiness. Using the idea of ‘pleasure’ and the pursuit of it, he explores the public rituals that cut across class and location. Steele-Perkins began the series hoping to capture a sense of hedonism and the search for a better world. It has since become
a unique document of the divisions and aspirations created by the political culture of the 1980s.
Further Reading
Chris Steele-Perkins, The Pleasure Principle, London 1989.
Chris Steele-Perkins, England, My England, London 2009.
Chris Steele-Perkins, ‘The Pleasure Principle: A Picture of 1980s Britain at Play’, https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/society-arts-culture/chris-steele-perkins-the-pleasure-principle/, accessed 20 March 2023.
Zmira Zilkha
June 2016
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