Thamesmead, Riverside School, 76-78
Two things about this fantastic set of 396 photos, most of them portraits, taken by a secondary school teacher in the 70s.
1) Given that this was 10 years before I was in secondary, and that was 20 years ago, there’s something familiar yet alien about the situations and faces. This is the era of my older cousin Karen who I remember looking up to as “cool” because she listened to pop music and had that new romantic hair. Not disimilar to this girl in some ways. Except completely different of course.
2) A teacher, especially a supply teacher, would never be able to take these photos today without signed permission slips from all the parents. So don’t expect to be looking through photos with a similar social history value from a 2007 school in 2037.
Muchas gracias D’log
Yes too bloody right, no teacher should take such pictures
In which case you, sir, are an idiot. But that’s okay.
That said, thanks for reminding me of it. Here’s a nice article about the photographer:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/may/14/communities.society
Thanks for the link, this is a fantastic set, (can you favourite sets?) and if you take time to read the comments it becomes a real social history. Such potential shown and surprises in what happened later. Must get to work now but will be studying more of these photos later.