From the series Flogging a Dead Horse, 1985–1993
Paul Reas belongs to a pioneering generation of photographers who explored and challenged British class and culture during the 1980s and 1990s. Reas’s seminal body of work I Can Help (1988) examines the impact of the consumer boom of the 1980s, which led to the proliferation of American-style shopping centres and the emergence of a new middle class. With humour and a distinctly caustic edge, Reas’s images critique an emerging cultural façade embodied by heritage sites, brands, and iconic cultural figures.