The Rio Tape/Slide Archive Book


Radical Community Photography in Hackney in the 1980s


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In the 1980s, Hackney was one of the most deprived parts of the UK, ignored by Margeret Thatcher’s new vision of Britain.

But at Dalston’s Rio – London’s oldest community-run cinema – the Tape/Slide Newsreel Group was giving unemployed local young people a voice. It taught photography and sound-recording skills, and championed an alternative perspective on Hackney life.

In 2016, thousands of slides were found in a filing cabinet in the Rio’s basement, a legacy of this groundbreaking project.

They document vibrant communities, street scenes, markets and social events. They also report on the social problems of a corner of London left behind, and on local activism against racism, police brutality, deportations, AIDS, the miners’ strike and nuclear weapons.

This book collects images and oral history. It is a story of community, resistance and hope, told by the people who lived it. 


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