“Oi you! Shut your mouth and look at my wad!”
– Harry Enflield as Loadsa Money, 1984
In 1987, photographer Anna Fox was commissioned to document the new office culture of the 1980s. Here she tells us about the project. As ever, let’s enjoy her terrific pictures and imagine the stories between. And if you recognise yourself in her work, we’d love to hear from you.
Work Stations, as told by Anna Fox
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 era when her famous phrase “there is no such thing as society, there are just individuals” was fuelling the money and asset keen culture, says Anna Fox.
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.
In 1987 I was commissioned by Camerawork and the Museum of London to photograph London office Life and it fitted perfectly with my interests – 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.
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.
“I always find it exciting to get into places that one would not normally have access to – so getting into a whole range of companies was strangely thrilling.”
– Anna Fox
“What didn’t I enjoy? Well back then I mostly worked alone and that can be lonely – 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!”
– Anna Fox
“They work in offices… 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.”
— Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin
‘I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand “I have a problem, it is the Government’s job to cope with it!” or “I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!” “I am homeless, the Government must house me!” and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing!’
– UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Women’s Own magazine, 1987
‘Cause nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’
You got to have somethin’ if you wanna be with me
Oh, life is too serious, love’s too mysterious
A fly girl like me needs security– Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ on but the Rent by Gwen Guthrie, 1986
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