{"id":305993,"date":"2025-12-09T00:24:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/305993\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T00:24:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:24:20","slug":"1980s-office-life-was-total-war-london-work-stations-1987-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/305993\/","title":{"rendered":"1980s Office Life Was Total War: London Work Stations 1987 – 88"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOi you! Shut your mouth and look at my wad!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Harry Enflield as Loadsa Money, 1984<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Work<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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In 1987, photographer Anna Fox was commissioned to document the new office culture of the 1980s<\/a>. Here she tells us about the project. As ever, let\u2019s enjoy her terrific pictures and imagine the stories between. And if you recognise yourself in her work, we\u2019d love to hear from you.<\/p>\n

Work Stations, as told by Anna Fox<\/p>\n

The series Work Stations was shot over approximately 18 months in the late 1980s and documents London office life towards the end of the Margaret Thatcher<\/a> era when her famous phrase<\/a> \u201cthere is no such thing as society, there are just individuals\u201d was fuelling the money and asset keen culture, says Anna Fox.<\/p>\n

Enthused by my photography education at the West Surrey College of Art & Design (now University for the Creative Arts where I am now Professor of Photography) I set out to photograph everyday life and intended to investigate areas that might have been ignored.<\/p>\n

In 1987 I was commissioned by Camerawork and the Museum of London to photograph London office Life and it fitted perfectly with my interests \u2013 before studying photography I had been an office worker in an insurance company and all my family were working in offices, so it was an amazing opportunity to look at a working life that I knew well but from behind the lens.<\/p>\n

I was also interested in making a comment on the Thatcher era and the times we were living in. I used a combination of brash colour photographs and quotes collected from business magazines, articles and interviews to tell a story that looked critically at the aggressive, competitive nature of working life in the period.<\/p>\n

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\"Work<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI always find it exciting to get into places that one would not normally have access to \u2013 so getting into a whole range of companies was strangely thrilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Anna Fox<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Work<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat didn\u2019t I enjoy? Well back then I mostly worked alone and that can be lonely \u2013 now I always have at least one assistant. Sometimes a producer and researcher and we can chat about things, this especially good when things go wrong as you have people to laugh about it with!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Anna Fox<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cThey work in offices\u2026 And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death. Some never awaken.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ana\u00efs Nin, The Diary of Ana\u00efs Nin<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Work \"\"<\/p>\n

\"Work<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand \u201cI have a problem, it is the Government\u2019s job to cope with it!\u201d or \u201cI have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!\u201d \u201cI am homeless, the Government must house me!\u201d and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2013 UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Women\u2019s Own magazine, 1987<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Work<\/p>\n

\"Work<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Cause nothin\u2019 from nothin\u2019 leaves nothin\u2019
You got to have somethin\u2019 if you wanna be with me
Oh, life is too serious, love\u2019s too mysterious
A fly girl like me needs security<\/p>\n

\u2013 Ain\u2019t Nothin\u2019 Goin\u2019 on but the Rent by Gwen Guthrie, 1986<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Work<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"t-shirts\"\/<\/a>
\n \"Work<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anna\u00a0Fox is represented by the Centre for British Photography where you can purchase her prints<\/a>. Her books are available directly by emailing Anna via her website<\/a> or at Here Press\u00a0<\/a>and Trolley Books<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOi you! Shut your mouth and look at my wad!\u201d \u2013 Harry Enflield as Loadsa Money, 1984 \u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-305993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}