From 1976 - 1981, photographer Syd Shelton documented Rock Against Racism, formed by a collective of musicians and political activists to promote racial harmony through music. Under the slogan 'Love Music, Hate Racism', it was one of the first organisations that actively showcased reggae and punk bands on the same stage, attracting large multicultural audiences. At a time when the National Front and fascist attitudes were gaining increasing support, Rock Against Racism marked the rising resistance to institutionalised and violent racism.
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Gavin Watson was born in London in 1965 and grew up on a council estate in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. He bought a Hanimex camera from Woolworths in his early teens and began to take photographs. Upon leaving school at the age of sixteen, Watson moved back to London and became a darkroom assistant at Camera Press. He continued to photograph his younger brother Neville and their group of skinhead friends in High Wycombe.
The ‘Wycombe Skins’ were part of the working-class skinhead subculture brought together by a love of ska music and fashion. Although skinhead style had become associated with the right-wing extremism of political groups like the National Front in the 1970s, Watson’s photographs document a time and place where the subculture was racially mixed and inclusive. |
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