Affectionate and critical, it pokes affectionate fun at its subjects while celebrating English eccentricity. "It was Thatcher's Britain, a period of celebration for those that had money" - Dafydd Jones The Oxford Years shows a world that has been written about and dramatized, yet never photographed. In these photographs, however, their youth is undeniable: teenagers in full suits celebrate the rise of Thatcher in England and Reagan in America, in between punting on the river, chasing romance and partying through the night. Many of the young people in these pictures moved on to have careers in the establishment including Boris Johnson and David Cameron. At this time, Oxford University was synonymous with the wealthy, the powerful and the privileged. A change was on its way - best described by a newspaper as 'the Return of the Bright Young Things'. Someone described it as a 'last hurrah' of the upper classes." - Dafydd Jones Oxford University at the start of the eighties, rife with black ties and ballgowns. It was a subject that had been written about and dramatized but I don't think any photographers had ever tackled before. An important photo book that visually documents student life at Oxford University during the 1980s- The major work of award-winning photographer Dafyyd Jones- A powerful record of the future British establishment"I had access to what felt like a secret world.
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