Quote: "Everything shifts as you move, and different things come into focus at different points of your life, and you try to articulate that."
Chris Steele-Perkins joined Magnum Photos in 1979 and became a full Member in 1983.
Chris Steele-Perkins

British, b. Burma 1947

At the age of two, Chris Steele-Perkins moved to England from Burma with his father. He went to school at Christ's Hospital. At the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he studied psychology and worked for the student newspaper; he graduated with honors in 1970 and started to work as a freelance photographer, moving to London in 1971.

Apart from a trip to Bangladesh in 1973, he worked mainly in Britain in areas concerned with urban poverty and subcultures. In 1975 he worked with EXIT, a collective dealing with social problems in British cities. This involvement culminated in the book Survival Programmes in 1982. He joined the Paris-based Viva agency in 1976. In 1979 he published his first solo book, The Teds; he also edited the Arts Council of Great Britain's book, About 70 Photographs.

Steele-Perkins joined Magnum Photos in 1979 and soon began working extensively in the developing world, in particular in Africa, Central America and Lebanon, as well as continuing to take photographs in Britain: The Pleasure Principle explores Britain in the 1980s. In 1992 he published Afghanistan, the result of four trips over four years. After marrying his second wife, Miyako Yamada, he embarked on a long-term photographic exploration of Japan, publishing Fuji in 2000. A highly personal diary of 2001, Echoes, was published in 2003, and the second of his Japanese books, Tokyo Love Hello, in March 2007. He continues to work in Britain, documenting rural life in County Durham.
Education

1967/70 Bachelor of Science in Psychology (Honours), University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
UK

Awards

2004 Sasakawa Foundation grant, Japan
2000 World Press Photo (Daily Life), Amsterdam, Netherlands
2000 Visiting Professor, Musashino Art University, Tokyo
1999 Sasakawa Foundation grant, Japan
1994 La Nacion Premier Photojournalism Award
1994 One World Award ("Dying for Publicity")
1994 Co-operative Society Award ("Dying for Publicity”)
1990 Gahan Lectureship, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA (unable to accept)
1989 Robert Capa Gold Medal, International Center of Photography, New York, USA
1988 Tom Hopkinson Prize for British Photojournalism, The Photographers' Gallery,
London, UK
1988 Oskar Barnak Prize, World Press Photo, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Exhibitions

2005 Echoes - Leica Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2003 The Teds - 292 Gallery, New York, USA; Stephen Daiter Gallery,
Chicago, USA
2002 Mt Fuji - MAC (Midlands Arts Centre), Birmingham; Gainsborough's House, Suffolk,
UK; Impressions Gallery,York; Pierce Hall Art Gallery, Halifax, UK; National Theatre,
London, UK; Grandship, Shizuoka, Japan; Darlington Arts Centre, Darlington,
Durham, UK
1999/00 Afghanistan - Perpignan Festival, Perpignan, France; Side Gallery,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK; Fotogallery, Cardiff, UK
1999 Nomansland - Photo Gallery International, Tokyo, Japan
1993 Cross-section - Hong Kong Festival, Hong Kong
1992 Africa, Work in Progress - Visa pour l'Image, Perpignan, France
1990 The Pleasure Principle – Galerie FNAC, Paris, France
1986 South Africa - Galerie FNAC, Paris, France
1985 Lebanon - Magnum Gallery, Paris, France
1985 Famine in Africa - Barbican Gallery, London, UK
1983 Beirut, Camerawork, London, UK
1979 The Teds, Camerawork Gallery, London, UK
1974 Face of Bengal - Camerawork Gallery, UK

Collections

Arts Council of Great Britain, UK
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
Photographers' Gallery, London, UK
Side Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA
National Gallery of Victoria, Australia
Bibiothèque Nationale, Paris, France
Galeries FNAC, Paris, France
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

Books

2006 Tokyo Love Hello, Intervalles, France
2003 Echos, Trolley, UK
2001 Fuji, Umbrage, USA
2000 Afghanistan, Westzone Publishing, UK; Marval, France
1992 St Thomas' Hospital, St Thomas' Hospital, UK
1989 The Pleasure Principle, Cornerhouse Books, UK
1983 Beirut Frontline Story (with Caroline Tisdale and Selim Nasib), Pluto Press, UK
1982 Survival Programmes: In Britain’s Inner Cities (with Nicholas Battye and Paul
Trevor), Open University Press, UK
1979/02 The Teds, Travelling Light, UK; Dewi Lewis Publishing, UK