An outstanding photography book documenting a movement that rocked
the world. Syd Shelton: Rock Against Racism is a body of
photographs that Syd Shelton produced for and about the British
Rock Against Racism movement (RAR) of 1976-1981. For Shelton, this
work was a socialist act, what he calls a "graphic argument," on
behalf of marginalized lives. His practice of photographic activism
began in 1973 when he was driven to document the socio cultural and
political dynamics expressed on the streets of Sydney by urban
Australian Aboriginal communities, the working class, and the
architectural landscapes of these groups. Shelton's first solo show
in 1975, "Working Class Heroes" at the Sydney Film-makers
Cooperative, established his distinct activist eye. Shelton joined
RAR in early 1977 on his return to England from Australia. He did
so because he found his birthplace a more racist country than it
had been when he left. This was marked by the increased political
presence of the National Front, notably its gain of some 119,000
votes in the Greater London Council Elections of May 1977. Shelton,
like millions of others, feared for the future of multi-cultural
Britain. His contribution to RAR was to be on the London committee,
to create graphic material with other RAR members such as the RAR
publication "Temporary Hoarding," posters' badges and his
photography-RAR did not have an official photographer. Shelton's
instinctive need to document RAR-its events, contributors, and
supporters-has resulted in the largest collection of images on the
movement. Alongside his documentation of RAR, Shelton took
photographs of what he calls "the contextual images," the lives and
landscapes that were defined by others as "different," and that
often fueled racist acts of violence by simply being. What is
presented here are Shelton's authoritative visual statements as
participant-photographer on the social tempo in Britain at this
time and the activist potency of RAR. As collective activism, RAR's
success was dependent on individual contributions to fuel the
movement's activities across the country. This unique national, and
eventually international, charge incorporated the visual dynamic of
how Black and white RAR contributors and participants styled their
bodies as another antagonistic tool against racism. These were acts
of style activism-the making of an activist identity through the
considered composition of clothes, accessories, hairstyles, makeup,
and body language. Shelton's images prompt us to remember that the
individuals at RAR carnivals, gigs, and demonstrations were the
event-they were RAR. There are many versions of what RAR was and
its legacy. Syd Shelton: Rock Against Racism provides an
auto/biographical telling of that historical moment. It reflects on
how Shelton's work as a photographer contributed towards social
change at a critical moment of political and racial tension in
Britain.
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