On Thursday 3 May 1979, people across Britain went to the polls. The result was a victory for the Conservative Party, led by the nation’s first female leader, Margaret Thatcher. It was the first day of more than a decade of her leadership, and the beginning of a new era for art, culture and politics. The Cold War reached its height, yet by the end of the 1980s, the fall of the Berlin Wall would mark the beginning of the end for the USSR. Technology rapidly developed and people began to welcome the Sony Walkman, the first mobile phones and iconic video game characters like Pac Man and Donkey Kong into their homes. Music and art were influenced by the hip hop scene of New York, and the New Romantics took the UK by storm in London and Manchester. Some of the world’s most beloved movies graced the screens of cinemas, as George Lucas created two Star Wars sequels and infamous characters like Indiana Jones, Ferris Bueller and E.T. first entered cultural consciousness. Yet, it was also a time of chronic injustice and social inequality. Hundreds of thousands of people were dying from HIV and AIDS-related illness and millions of women, people of colour and members of the LGBTQIA+ community were facing rampant discrimination. The decade was a tipping point, marking the dawn of a new era.
Now, a new book from Thames & Hudson brings together the most iconic images from the 1980s. The first in a new series, the book seamlessly takes us on a journey through the decade, traversing art, fashion, music and politics. Far from taking these topics in isolation, Henry Carroll guides the reader through a comprehensive portrait of the period. Art influences media, politics shapes music – each aspect of the decade bleeds into one another. We learn how the aesthetics of the New Romantics, including performers like Boy George, was a reaction to life in Thatcherite Britain as “in the shadow of urban decay, underground hedonism was at its height.” As women took on entrenched misogyny in the workplace, other aspects of life followed suit. Fashion became more androgynous, with power suits and short hair the signature look for many; “the wide shoulders and angular silhouettes, reminiscent of battle armour, looked like they were designed to intimidate male colleagues.”
In weaving this story together, like a curated mixtape, we begin to understand how a single image can have an effect that ripples outwards. In October 1984, Michael Buerk’s BBC Report shed a light on the mass starvation in Ethiopia. It was one of the most catastrophic humanitarian disasters of the century and suddenly coverage was being beamed into people’s living rooms. They were images impossible to ignore. It sparked a new era of activism, with everyday people having access to footage of war and suffering. Forty years on, the way in which photographs and videos shape our understanding of international affairs has been escalated by access to social media and thus millions of personal stories and pictures from those directly involved. In response to the news from Ethiopia, the singers and songwriters Bob Geldof and Midge Ure wrote and recorded charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas? It set in motion the concept of celebrity altruism, a concept that has a legacy still felt today, both in terms of how we expect to see high profile figures react to current events, and in how to critique and analyse this behaviour. The end result is to remind us of the influence the 1980s continues to have on our lives. It ushered in a new vision of the future, shaping the world we live in today.
The 1980s: Image of a Decade is published by Thames & Hudson and will be published on 7th November 2024: thamesandhudsonusa.com
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1. The launch of Columbia, NASA’s first space shuttle, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, April 1981. Courtesy NASA.
2. Astronaut Bruce McCandless on the first-ever untethered spacewalk, Space Shuttle Challenger, 7 February 1984. Courtesy NASA.
3. Astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, in the pilot’s chair of the Earth-orbitting Space Shuttle Challenger, October 1984. Courtesy NASA.
4. George Sowden, Oberoi Armchair, 1980. Courtesy of Memphis Srl.
5. Eruption column of Mount St. Helens, 18 May 1980. Courtesy US Geological Survey.
6. Peter Kennard, Germany Shakes, 1989.
