Published by Bluecoat Press, This Was Then is the first career-spanning book by Mike Abrahams, one of the UK’s most significant documentary photographers. Shot across Britain over three decades, in the years before and after Margaret Thatcher’s time in government, This Was Then brilliantly captures seemingly small moments of everyday life that tell a far bigger story of Britain during this time. Abrahams’ photographs demonstrate his unerring ability to capture “ordinary people living extraordinary lives”.
Mike became a photographer after working for the ambulance service in Liverpool. Entering some of the last occupied homes in condemned streets proved a revelation and he returned with his camera, and some of these first images appear in This Was Then. Asked once why he takes photographs in black and white, Mike Abrahams explained: “I grew up in Liverpool in the 1950s and 60s, a city in which to my eyes, colour was absent.”