WIREDGOV

A photography project that gained popularity in the early 80s for its frank and arresting portraiture of young women in society is being given new life with the help of our National Lottery funded Grants for the arts scheme.

Visible Girls: Revisited is a new photography commission and national travelling exhibition that explores the ways in which photography can help reveal what we feel about our identity and society at the various stages in our lives.

Where it began

In 1981, photographer Anita Corbin captured moments in the life of 56 young women – all members of different subcultures. The result was an extraordinary collection of portraits. At the time the UK’s first female Prime Minister hadn't long been in office, and against the backdrop of heightened social, cultural and political change, the Skins, Mods, Punks, Rockabillies, New Romantics, Rastas and young lesbians that Anita photographed represented a new movement of female empowerment.

The exhibition that came out of this work - Visible Girls – was a hit; it toured the UK with the images displayed in youth clubs, town halls and libraries, and was used to inform a South Bank University digital photography module on identity.

The girls are back in town

Now, 36 years later, Anita is asking where those girls are? Is that skinhead now a clairvoyant? Is that punk a yoga teacher? What’s happened to all those women who were so dedicated to their subcultural tribes and what’s happened to their dreams and beliefs?

With the help of an Arts Council grant Anita plans to re-photograph most of the original girls using new digital technology to create a set of images that will sit alongside the originals in a touring exhibition.

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