80s Sound and Vision

80s Sound and Vision captures the raw energy, creativity, and flamboyance of an unforgettable era through its fashion and music.

With images by renowned photographer Sheila Rock, this personal journey offers a visual account including many rare images from the photographer’s archive, alongside those originally featured in seminal publications such as The Face, Rolling Stone, and Vogue.

Rock’s compelling first hand narrative shot across a decade primarily in London but also LA, San Francisco, and Tokyo, takes us to a time when the real catwalk happened on the street; when style was the first and last word and when youth made their own identity, culture, music, and entertainment. Here are the burgeoning roots of gender fluidity and an index of impressive talents that bubbled out of the suburbs and art schools to energise and invigorate a grey place with positivity and possibility.
 
This lavish compendium is a who’s who of the artists, designers, stylists, hairdressers, models, and performers who made the 1980s their own. Alongside many notable stars (David Bowie, Brian Ferry, Naomi Campbell, Judy Blame, Leigh Bowery) are documented the equally relevant style gangs and subcultures who lived by their own rules (New Romantics, Goths, Mods, and Metal Heads) and the ‘it’ hang outs and clubs (Billy’s, Blitz, Le Beat Route) where a new sensibility was created and paraded.
 
80s Sound and Vision is a unique chronicle of an extraordinary time and bears witness to the powerful explosion of imagination and innovation that shaped a decade.

 

American born and Boston University educated, Sheila Rock moved to London in 1970. Her introduction to rock and roll came via her ex-husband, photographer Mick Rock who she joined when he covered David Bowie’s first tour. A few years after, she started to document London’s punk scene and her first commissions were from Nick Logan of The Face. She went on to become a prolific photographer for Vogue, Time, ELLE, Glamour, Rolling Stone and The Sunday Times. Publications include Punk+ (2013), Young Punks (2020), Tough & Tender (2015). Her portrait photography is in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

A commentator on fashion and style for over thirty years, Nilgin Yusuf is a former fashion writer at British ELLE and The Daily Telegraph and fashion editor at The Sunday Times, where she first met Sheila Rock.