Magnum photographer Chris Steele-Perkins has passed away at age 78 on September 8th, 2025.
Chris was born in 1947. At the age of two, he moved to England from Burma with his father. Steele-Perkins attended the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he studied psychology whilst working for the student newspaper. He graduated with honours in 1970 and moved to London in 1971, where he worked as a freelance photographer.
When working in Britain, Steele-Perkins concentrated on areas concerned with urban poverty and subcultures. In 1975 he worked with EXIT, a collective dealing with social problems in British cities. This involvement culminated in the book Survival Programmes in 1982.
In 1976, Steele-Perkins joined the Paris-based Viva agency. Following this, In 1979 he published his first solo book, The Teds. Concurringly in this year, he edited the Arts Council of Great Britain’s book, about 70 Photographs.
After joining Magnum Photos in 1979, Steele-Perkins began working extensively in economically developing nations. Particularly, Africa, Central America and Lebanon. He also continued to take photographs in Britain, The Pleasure Principle explores Britain in the 1980s. In 1992 he published Afghanistan, the result of four trips over four years. After marrying his second wife, Miyako Yamada, he embarked on a long-term photographic exploration of Japan, publishing Fuji in 2000. A highly personal diary of 2001; Echoes was published in 2003. Followed by the second of his Japanese books, Tokyo Love Hello, in March 2007.
Of recent, Steele-Perkins has published two books; The Troubles published in 2021 and The New Londoners, published in 2019. The Troubles is a collection of images which he took in 1978 in Northern Ireland. The new Londoners book celebrates London’s diversity through a series of family portraits captured by Steele-Perkins.
