Survival Programmes

Nick Battye/Chris Steele-Perkins/Paul Trevor
Between 1974 and 1979, Exit Photography Group documented the growing inner city crisis in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Glasgow and Belfast.

The remarkable ambition and vision of Survival Programmes: In Britain’s Inner Cities continues to challenge contemporary policy on social exclusion, social values and social justice. Widely acclaimed when it first appeared, the work has since acquired cult status as British Photography’s best kept secret. In aiming to create a lasting testimony that would resonate beyond the immediate political circumstances of the time, the three Exit photographers developed a complex and multi-layered response to the situation. The exhibition prints were made by Sid Kaplan, the New York printer responsible for the Weegee prints in the AmberSide Collection.

All images © Nicholas Battye, Chris Steele-Perkins or Paul Trevor