The Rio Tape / Slide Archive: Radical Community Photography in Hackney in the 80's - Softcover

Leonard, Max; Denney, Alan; Stoll, Tamara; Woodyatt, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0995488665 ISBN 13: 9780995488663

Publisher: Isola Press, 2020

Synopsis

In the 1980s, Hackney was one of the most deprived parts of the UK, its citizens ignored by Margaret Thatcher's new vision of Britain. But at Dalston's Rio - London's oldest community cinema - the Tape/Slide Newsreel Group was giving unemployed local youth a voice. Set up in 1982, it taught photography and sound-recording skills, and championed an alternative, left-wing perspective on Hackney life. In 2016, thousands of slides were found in a filing cabinet in the Rio's basement, a legacy of this ground-breaking project. The book presents the best of the slides that were shown in newsreels before the main feature at the Rio, alongside recollections of the Tape/Slide Newsreel Group participants. This important oral history places the photos in the cultural and political context of Hackney in the 1980s, meaning that, unlike some photobooks about East London, it is connected to the communities it portrays and remains true to the original radicalism behind the Tape/Slide Newsreel Group. There are introductory essays by Andrew Woodyatt (of The Rio), about the cinema's activities in the 1980s, and by Alan Denney (the photographer and local historian who digitised all the slides) putting the archive into the context of the contemporary movements in radical community photography, plus forewords from Michael Rosen and Zawe Ashton. The archive is presented chronologically and themes include: activism, parades and protest marches; art, culture, music and festivals; social problems and community action; street life and style; urban landscapes and dereliction; work and everyday life; young and old.

About this title

About the Author

Max Leonard is a writer whose most recent book is Mountain Style: British Outdoor Clothing 1953-2000.

His A Cold Spell: A Human History of Ice is now in paperback from Bloomsbury. Michael Palin called it “bracingly original”, while Olivia Laing said it was a “book of limitless fascinations”.

Previously he co-authored the Rio Tape/Slide Archive, about Hackney in the 1980s, and wrote Higher Calling, about shepherds, snowploughs and cyclists’ obsession with mountains.

Bunker Research is also available. It won a prize for Isola Press, where he is creative director. Other Isola books include the Rough-Stuff Fellowship Archive. Then there’s Lanterne Rouge published by Yellow Jersey and a few more besides.

He is the ghostwriter behind two Sunday Times Bestsellers and a rock musician memoir. Not forgetting smaller things for a legendary racing driver, famous spy-film makers, a Swiss banker and others. 

He writes good copy and has contributed to books made by Taschen, Rizzoli, Lonely Planet and Magma.

Edition details

• Publisher: Isola Press
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0995488665
• ISBN 13: 9780995488663
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256