Resilience and resistance during The Thatcher Years
- Text by Miss Rosen
- Photography by Paul Pickard
The iron reign — Photojournalist Paul Pickard’s new book revisits English Midlands life during ’80s, when he was on the frontlines recording news and key events, as tensions between people and authority came to a head.
In 1975, Paul Pickard left school at 16 and fell into a routine office job in Stafford, in England’s West Midlands. But his perceived mundanity of daily life made a quiet moment of inspiration all the more extraordinary. “One day, a colleague brought a grainy black-and-white photograph into the office he had made, of an old gentleman cutting his hedge,” Pickard remembers. “It might not sound much but that was my lightbulb moment. I knew what I wanted to do.”
He immediately set to work, purchased a 35mm camera and built a temporary darkroom in his parents’ garage. Up and running in no time, Pickard began sneaking his camera into gigs and concerts inside girlfriends’ handbags. Then genius struck. He ran an ad in Sounds magazine, selling hand printed pictures of The Clash taken at a show.
“Music was always a strong interest, so marrying photography with performance felt like a natural way to progress,” Packard says. “After a bit of time and practice, I began getting hired to shoot bands like Thin Lizzy, The Jam, and the Bangles. This was all good fun, but as with most things in life, if it’s a pleasure to do then the money isn’t likely to be too good, so I looked for a way to earn more.”
When Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979, Pickard was called to photojournalism. “I was 21 years old, living in the Midlands and wanted to do hard news photography,” he says.
In 1979, he started work as a darkroom printer at the local paper, The Staffordshire Newsletter. “I had the thrilling task of printing 7×5 inch prints of garden parties and gold wedding couples, but also developing their staff photographer’s films from news and sport events,” he says. The paper sponsored him to go to college, but Pickard had to drop out after acquiring Epstein-Barr virus.
Pickard returned to the paper the following year and set to work, crafting a wide-lensed archive of the era. “With little or no formal training I found myself going out and recording news events from a violent and disturbing decade in history,” he says. Now, the photographer looks back with The Thatcher Years 1979 – 1990 (Café Royal Books), chronicling scenes of joy and resistance during the Iron Lady’s neoliberal régime.
On the cover, a searing scene from the 1985 Handsworth uprising in West Birmingham – the second in the span of half a decade – reveals escalating violence as the predominantly Black and Southeast Asian community fought back against police harassment, raids and arrests. They attacked properties and threw firebombs, with a panoramic photograph inside the book – made on a roof overlooking Lozells Road as smoke rises over the ruins – showing the scope of the damage.
“It was a very dangerous time for photographers,” says Pickard, who was attacked on numerous occasions outside courthouses and football stadiums, as well as wounded during the ’85 and ’88 Birmingham uprisings. “It was seen as part of the job, unacceptably so,” he continues. “I was hospitalised a few times from woundings, but nothing serious enough to stop me wanting to carry on being a photographer.”
The Thatcher Years 1979 – 1990 by Paul Pickard is published by Café Royal Books.
Miss Rosen is a freelance arts and photography writer, follow her on X.
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