Drivers in the 1980s

"This is Thatcher’s Britain, gentlemen, and it’s absolutely incredible to look at." —British GQ

Chris Dorley-Brown spent two summers in the mid-1980s using his first-ever rolls of color film to photograph drivers waiting in traffic in and around East London. The images appear mundane but have aged like a fine wine: the cars, colors, haircuts, clothes, and expressions (often of boredom or anger and always seen through an open window—there was no air conditioning then!) capture a particular mood from Thatcher’s Britain.

Chris Dorley-Brown is a British photographer who has lived and worked in the East End for over thirty years.