SMILE PLEASE! Tony Briggs

The end of the 20th century marked a high point for photography’s collaboration with popular culture. The world was analogue, no smart technology, no social media and the photographer’s image still dominated. I was lucky to catch the end of this era and to be perfectly placed when modernist subculture came to the forefront again and be in pole position for the second wave of alternative comedy.

So after the success of my Ocean Colour Scene book, ‘Behind the Scene’, I was inspired to publish a book of all of my favourite work, Tony Briggs, 'Smile. Please? Photography, collaboration and culture', a retrospective look back at my career, covering all my favourite work since my move from Sunderland to London in 1987. As with 'Behind the Scene', this is a high-quality art book but this time a glossy hardback A5 limited edition, designed and crafted again by the brilliant Pete Kelsey.

A riotous collection of photographs and anecdotes accompanies one 17 year-old’s journey from Sunderland to the bright lights of London, who found himself shaping many of the key icons and cultural references of ‘Cool Britannia’. A career spent working across music, fashion, comedy and advertising gives remarkable access to the giddy spirit of the times and reflects photography’s then dominance for expressing its key cultural, commercial, and societal obsessions.

From Ronaldinhio to Paul Gascoigne, Oasis to Ocean Colour Scene, Paul Weller to Mother Earth, Portishead to Faithless, Ali G to Jimmy Carr, Rory McIlroy to Stephen Fry,  Keira Knightley to Sean Lock, Heston Blumenthal to Raymond Blanc, Bill Bailey to Dom Joly, 

'Smile Please?' really stands up as an honest representation of the last 40 years, a canny mix of the funny, gritty, frank, personal and glamorous. It's down to-earth and not remotely self-congratulatory (even though it should be).'Jaynie Bye, Media Guru