In Photography of Protest and Community: The Radical Collectives of the 1970s, photo historian and political researcher Noni Stacey analyzes the development of “community photography” through case studies of three photography collectives: The Hackney Flashers Collective, Exit Photography Group, and Half Moon Photography Workshop, which produced Camerawork magazine; and two community darkrooms: North Paddington Community Darkroom and Blackfriars Photography Project (11). These collectives had an interconnected and overlapping relationship with the alternative press, the counterculture, the women's liberation movement, unions, and each other. Stacey states that she initially sought to study how these trained photographers transferred skills to marginalized communities; over time, however, she shifted her focus to the relationship among the collectives (180). Many of the individuals involved, such as Jo Spence, belonged to several collectives. The collaborative, nonhierarchical, and politically engaged characteristics of the photography collectives grew out of and were nurtured by the many factions of social movements growing in Britain during the 1970s. Stacey's visually engaging case studies effectively demonstrate the significance of the photography collectives’ engagement with politics, representation, and social change happening outside of the mainstream media.

In the present environment of smart phones and Instagram, it might be difficult to understand that in the 1970s, photography was still a complicated and expensive endeavor. Most photography would have been produced by mainstream news media and professionals. Furthermore, there was a clear division of labor in the glossy magazines: writers did not photograph, photographers did not write. At the same time, residents of London's poorer boroughs had become accustomed to being documented and photographed either by statisticians (such as the Mass Observation projects of the 1930s) or by the emerging field of photojournalism in the 1970s (15, 25). Meanwhile, Britain, along with many parts of the rest of the world, was experiencing radical shifts in political and social norms. The youth counterculture of the 1960s influenced other movements that delegitimized hierarchies and exclusions in social relations, work relations, academia, and, most importantly for this study, art. Stacey takes the question, quoted from Camerawork's “Statement of Aims” but articulated by many others, “Who is it for?” when presenting what made these collectives so radical at the time. For the collectives, that question clearly should be answered “for those who are photographed.”

According to Stacey, “community photography” was the product of socially and politically conscious photographers who sought to engage with and shape the massive increase in legislative gains made for civil rights in Britain over the course of the 1970s. The photographers who formed the collectives were more interested in using photography to change social realities than with its acceptance as art, though they had to deal with artistic definitions when engaging with galleries. Their key concern was to avoid the parachuting in typical of documentary photographers. This happened when professional photographers would enter poor and marginalized communities to make poverty documentaries without engaging with those communities, especially in the process of deciding what photos would be published. One other challenge they faced was how to visually represent the lack of something. The Hackney Flashers encountered this problem with their exhibit Who's Holding the Baby? For this exhibit, the goal was to show the lack of supports for women in work, especially child care. But how does one photograph the lack of child care? The solution reached by the collective was to use photomontage, collage, graphics, and cartoons (127). In line with other trends of the women's liberation movement taking off in the early-to-mid 1970s, Women and Work, an exhibit of the Half Moon Gallery in 1976, sought to counter the idealized image of women typical in mainstream publications as flawlessly beautiful, nurturing mothers, and attentive wives. Instead, Half Moon and others represented a wide range of women's lives including as single mothers, office cleaners, or factory workers.

Stacey's is a “history from below” with an interesting addition. The collectives she examines sought to demystify and democratize the photographic process for those who would normally be on the other side of the middle-class gaze. While trying to dethrone mainstream media's control of photographic representation, the collectives also sought to break down barriers between classes and sexes during the production of representation. During the process of trying to counter the individualized ideal of womanhood, for example, those working on the Women and Work exhibit shared skills and tasks. Amateurs and professionals worked alongside each other; moreover, the limits of photographs were met by creating captions and narratives explaining the deeper meaning behind the photograph (127). Much of the work was produced collectively, but photographs might still be individually accredited, such as Chris Steel-Perkins's work in Northern Ireland (81). Camerawork's documentation of Northern Ireland made a decisive break with photojournalism's division of photographer and writer while also forging alliances with the local community against the policies of the state. Taken together, these are the core aspects of the collectives that Stacey argues made them a significant part of the wider social and political movements of the time.

Noni Stacey's Photography of Protest and Community is a welcome addition to the study of representation and visual documentation of social movements. Stacey gives a fascinating look into the world behind the images that were a part of the wider world of social and political change in 1970s Britain. This book would be a good addition to the reading lists of courses on contemporary cultural history, visual arts, and media studies. Stacey discusses production, representation, and reception without the reader's needing a deep understanding of semiotics, making this an ideal book for an undergraduate class or interested general readers. Lastly, she makes the makes the connection between “community photography” and modern social media, showing just how important a study like hers will continue to be going forward.