#172 CAMERA Book Review: Chris Steele Perkins - The Teds

A look through the 1979 first Edition of The Teds by photographer Chris Steele Perkins & writer Richard Smith.

The Teddy Boys were a flashily dressed, rebellious, and sometimes violent youth movement that originated in Britain in the '50s. The three-quarter-length Edwardian jacket with velvet collar, drainpipe trousers, and quiff became a focus of male fashion which still holds cult status today. The Teds combines image and text to tell their story--a fascinating tale spanning three decades.

Chris Steele Perkins' The Teds was first published in 1979 by Travelling Light and Exit with an accompanying text by Richard Smith. The project documents the revival of Teddy Boy culture during the late 1970s, more than twenty years after the subculture first emerged in post war Britain. Originally commissioned by New Society magazine, Steele Perkins spent extended periods with Teddy Boys and Teddy Girls in London, Southend, Croydon, Bradford and other parts of Britain, photographing their social lives, clubs, pubs, dances and everyday routines. The resulting work became one of the defining photobooks of British documentary photography and was republished by Dewi Lewis in revised editions in 2003 and 2018.

Rather than treating the Teds as a curiosity or social problem, Steele Perkins photographed the community from within, developing relationships that allowed him to produce intimate portraits alongside observations of collective identity and ritual. His photographs examine clothing, music, dance and friendship as expressions of belonging while revealing how the revival of the Teddy Boy movement drew upon the fashions and attitudes of the 1950s to create a distinct subculture in the late twentieth century. The Teds remains an important study of British youth culture, demonstrating Steele Perkins' long standing interest in communities existing beyond the social mainstream and establishing many of the humanistic qualities that would define his later documentary work.

Publisher: Travelling Light (29 Oct. 1979)
Language: : English
Paperback: 120 pages

Chris Steele Perkins:
Chris Steele-Perkins moved from Rangoon to London with his family in 1949. He graduated with honours in psychology at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1967-70) while working as a photographer and picture editor for the student newspaper. In 1971 he moved to London and started working as a freelance photographer and started his first foreign work in 1973 in Bangladesh followed by work for relief organizations and travel assignments. In 1975 he worked with EXIT, a group dealing with social problems in British cities. He then joined the Paris-based Viva agency in 1976.

Magnum Photos:
Dewi Lewis:

Music by kind permission Martin Stephenson:

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