Sub Culture

Unpaginated (12 pp.) zine containing photographs taken of the London skinhead culture in 1979, with photographs by Iain McKell and texts by Klaus Fabricius. Square octavo (8 3/8 x 8 3/8 inches). Original photographic side-stapled wrappers, signed in black marker by McKell to front cover. Extremely light handling wear and edgewear, exceedingly small areas of creasing, a couple of areas of very light rubbing to back cover, overall excellent. London: November Press, 1979. Limited edition of 1000 copies. Including a laid-in invitation to a five-year retrospective exhibition of McKell's work, held in London in 1984. Iain McKell (b. 1957) is a Brisih fashion, (truncated) portrait, and social documentary photographer who has specialized in photographing British subcultures since the 1980s. At the age of 22, he quit his job in graphic design to follow a career in photography, and one of his first projects was photographing the Mod/Skinhead revival in London. This culminated in the current volume, Sub Culture, his first book. Other noteworthy projects of his involved photographing the Guardian Angels group in New York which trained members to make citizens' arrests for violent crime in their neighborhoods; the Blitz Kid club culture including an unknown Boy George; rising star Madonna for her first ever magazine cover; the 1980s British comedic group The Comic Strip; and other counterculture groups including Psychedelic Trance in Thailand, London Dandies, American Rockabilly, Druids/Pagans, New Age Gypsies, and fetish groups.

The inside front cover of Sub Culture has a brief introductory paragraph which reads, "The photographs compiled in this book were taken during the summer of 1979, and follow a sub cult which inhabits the urban city of London. They represent documents of sub cultural events like music gigs, and weekend get-togethers. The skinheads like their elder brothers before them and their younger brothers to come reject society's moral standards and adopt their own set of values."

The following pages contain 12 photographs of London skinheads, each with a poetic caption underneath authored by Fabricius. These captions are at times fatalistic, depressive, and bleak, mentioning feelings of uncertainty, fear, low self-worth, and exclusion, alongside other captions which highlight the importance of friendships, youthfulness, music, and freedom to be yourself. One reads, "Did you ever realize that you can't go very far in your life? For instance: At school. They tell you off. Your family. They annoy you. And your friends. They want you to be just like them. How can you be who you want?" Another reads, "Sometimes like on a Sunday afternoon I get bored. But then I get my music out and play records for myself and my mates. And then it's alright again until Monday."

An exceedingly rare document of 1970s London underground culture, signed by the photographer; as of January 2025, OCLC locates only two holdings of this zine in North America. (Inventory #: 53375)