Youth Culture History

poster for my residency in Margate. Tour dates! I should have had a T-shirt made.

The success of 2-tone and bands like Madness made skinhead acceptable for advertising use in the early 1980s, with this gang of wheat-based skins regularly showing up on TV in ad breaks.

Great set of pics of skinheads from around Hertfordshire circa 1980.

Teddy Boy in Margate. Found out and about on Millmead Estate when I was working on finding new participants for my Cachet project in 2011. © Iain Aitch

Me giving a talk about my photos and work at Turner Contemporary, Margate. Here I am explaining the short-lived fashion for skinheads (mainly skinhead girls) to wear moccasins. Picture circa 1981.

Margate shop The Emporium did a great photoshoot with some Margate skinheads past and present last winter and came up with a very limited edition book and some prints. The results are great and give a real taste of how Margate would have looked on bank holidays past.

This blog is the result of my work during an artistic residency in Margate, Kent, exploring youth subcultures and their part in that town’s history. The work is currently on show at Turner Contemporary in Margate as part of the show Nothing In The World But Youth, but comes down on 8 January.

The work includes historic photographs donated by former and current members of youth subcultures, new portraits of each participant by myself and lines of text taken from interviews with the participants. The photographs sit in pairs, showing both the passing of time as well as the influence of these subcultures on the current life and look of those brave souls who agreed to take part. The project has a Facebook page where you can see the work taking shape as well as far more ephemera and photographs from Margate locals.

This blog should continue the project and also create a space for me to post more on youth subcultures from my own findings and links to other likeminded souls across the web.