Resistance

by Steve McQueen, Turner Contemporary, Clarrie Wallis (Editor)

A landmark work charting how acts of resistance have shaped Britain and the powerful role of photography as a catalyst for change, across the twentieth century, curated by acclaimed artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen.

Resistance presents a century of activism, from the radical suffrage movement in 1903 through key moments including the Battle of Cable Street, the Black People’s Day of Action, Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp and the Miners’ Strike; onto protests against environmental destruction, struggles for LGBTQ+ and disability rights; culminating with the largest protest in Britain’s history: the march against the War in Iraq in 2003.

A wealth of photographs – from covert surveillance images to era-defining press reportage – are interwoven with firsthand accounts from those who witnessed these major historical moments and expert analysis of where these stories lead us today. Featuring contributions from groundbreaking voices such as Gary Younge, Paul Gilroy and Baroness Chakrabarti, alongside powerful images from renowned photographers including Vanley Burke, Edith Tudor-Hart, Tish Murtha and Paul Trevor.

Resistance uncovers the often-overlooked stories of individuals who have been instrumental in forming modern Britain and is a testament to the empowering impact of collective action today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 13, 2025

Reviews

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exhibition catalogues often occupy an ambivalent space in writing – they can be scholarly, and often in artist-centred exhibitions become a detailed scholarly analysis of an artist about whom little accessible material exists. Thematic exhibitions’ catalogues play a different role, often engaging contemporary scholarly and analytical approaches in a way designed to engage a non-academic audience, which is what this does extremely well. The exhibition, an investigation of photography of political resistance activities in 20th century Britain, poses powerful questions about dissent, about means of and mechanisms for social change, and about the ideas and movements that shaped contemporary Britain. Exhibitions of this kind seem to me to be difficult to mount, if for no other reason than at least for the more recent resistance movements there are plenty of us around who assert ‘I was there’!

This exhibition (I’ve not seen it – so far it has shown in Margate and Edinburgh that I know of: I’m hoping it’ll make it to somewhere closer to my part of the South West Midlands) seems to focus as much on the stories the photos tell us as they do anything authoritative – although the images are packed with truthful narratives of opposition and movements for change. Some images will be well known, but many will not: McQueen and the curatorial team are to be commended for that.

Equally, Wallis, Harrison and McQueen have put together a powerful and valuable catalogue that does much more than respond to and shape the exhibition – it grapples in some quite sophisticated ways with the subtitle. Part of the way it does this is by weaving the images into the essays, both as moments of description but also in the ways they act as sources, challenge us to recognise silences and absences. In part it does this by including three types of accompanying essay: the opening two – by journalist and academic Gary Younge and curator Emma Lewis look at the politics (Younge) and aesthetics and visuality (Lewis) of protest, setting up frames to read the images and what comes next.

Each section – looking at issues such women’s suffrage, workers struggles, environmentalism, the peace movement, anti-imperialist and anti-racist movements, disability movements and so forth – then include contextualising essays (each 5-6 pages) and reflections by participants (2 pages) all exploring and drawing on key accompanying images. In doing so, the collection strikes a balance between an exhibition catalogue and free-standing book: that’s a tough balance to strike – and it would have been even better with some further reading pointers….

[Chelsea Knowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this and it did exactly what it said it would. It was a little too short for it to become a new favourite but I really liked how it explained different types of protest and I loved the pictures.

Favourite Quotes:

“I’m more than halfway through my life now. They say that in old age, you spend more time in reminiscence; that in their dying days, old soldiers revisit the trenches. I know that those years will never leave me, that the friendships I made are stronger than diamonds. I can’t wait to go back there, in my memories; to those very alive times, in the trees.”

AND

“Sitting quietly at a screen while clicking on ‘likes’ and solidarity hashtags from across the planet can be conceived as a variety of political activity. However, well-intentioned gestures do not measure up to the definitions of resistance, dissent and active opposition characteristic of earlier struggles to secure rights and recognition and demand the end of double standards.”

[Tracey Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I read this at a friend's house so I didn't manage to read all the essays. But this book - published to accompany the exhibition - is fascinating. Some fantastic photos of a range of protests, from the Suffragettes to hunger marches to poll tax riots and anti-fascism protests, set alongside a series of contextualising essays about race, section 28, disability rights etc.

Definitely worth your time.

[Judith Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this excellent book. Every home, school and library in Britain could do with a copy to remind us of how hard won our rights are. These days, with so much ground being lost, we all need to be vigilant, to honour the struggles of our forebears, and to uphold what they fought for.

[Shawna Hynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading, now more than ever.