033 - Chris Steele-Perkins

Magnum legend Chris Steele-Perkins was born in Burma in 1947 to a Burmese mother and an English father, who brought him back to England when he was 2 years old. He published his first photobook The Teds in 1979 and shortly after that joined Magnum photos after an invitation to apply from none other than Josef Koudelka. He subsequently travelled all over the world, covering many of the major global conflicts of the 80’s and 90’s in between working extensively in his home country, and producing a number of books of that work, along with those from Afghanistan and later from his wife’s native country of Japan. He has won, to name but a few awards, The Oscar Barnack Prize, The Robert Capa Gold Medal and a number of World Press awards, and all that despite the fact that he doesn’t really consider himself to be a photojournalist.

In episode 33, Chris discusses, among other things:

• His New British project*
• The importance of text… but also ambiguity 
• His first book project, The Teds
• Starting out - "a good time to be a photographer"
• The moment in Afghanistan when he was done with conflict
• A Place In The Country
• The importance of developing a personal voice

Website | Magnum page | Facebook

*If you know anyone who might be interested in taking part in the New British project email here. There's a list of the nationalities still oustanding on The Guardian website here.

“I think it was Daumier, wasn’t it?, the painter, who said early on in photography’s history, that it describes everything and explains nothing and that remains true to this day.”

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