Fads, fakes and fantasies: The crisis in the art schools and the crisis in art.

by Jane England (Photographer). Black Dog Pub 2017, cm.22x28,5, pp.160, b.w ill. hardback. legatura editoriale in mz.tela, copertina figurata. Bringing together photographs taken during the mid 1970s through to the early 1980s, Turn and Face the Strange covers the eclectic range of subjects that passed in front of Jane England’s camera. Initially inspired by photographers such as Diane Arbus and Guy Bourdin, England photographed friends and associates at a time when marginalised groups and sub-cultures merged and came together with a shared sense of nihilism and decadence. Her images range from carefully choreographed portraits to street photographs, encompassing the early years of London’s Punk era and the birth of New Romanticism. Her depictions of non-conformist urban tribes provide an intimate portrayal of sophistication and squalor, the demi-monde who existed between the street and the more exotic echelons of the art and fashion scenes. By not aligning herself with any of the number of sub-cultures that emerged across London and beyond in the late twentieth century, England was able to photograph club kids and Teddy boys, transvestites, artists and aspirant models. While a number of England’s subjects such as Vivienne Westwood and Gilbert & George have become icons of the period, many of the others are forgotten, having retreated to the suburbs or died tragically young.