Previously Published in 2015 this is the 1st North American Hardcover Edition 2024An excellent photography book that documents a movement that shook the world. Syd Shelton: Rock Against Racism is a set of photographs that Syd Shelton produced for and about the British Rock Against Racism (RAR) movement from 1976 to 1981. For Shelton, this work was a socialist act, what he calls a “graphic argument,” on behalf of marginalized lives. His photographic activism practice began in 1973 when he was driven to document the sociocultural and political dynamics expressed on the streets of Sydney by Australian Aboriginal urban communities, the working class, and the architectural landscapes of these groups. Shelton’s first solo exhibition in 1975, “Working Class Heroes” at the Sydney Filmmakers’ Co-op, established his distinctive activist eye.Shelton joined RAR in early 1977 upon his return to England from Australia. He did so because he found his birthplace to be a more racist country than when he left. This was marked by the increased political presence of the National Front, notably its securing of some 119,000 votes in the May 1977 Greater London Council elections. Shelton, like millions of others, feared for the future of multicultural Britain. His contribution to RAR was serving on the London committee, creating artwork with other RAR members such as the RAR publication “Temporary Hoarding,” poster badges, and his photography—RAR did not have an official photographer. Shelton's instinctive need to document RAR (its events, contributors, and supporters) has resulted in the largest collection of images about the movement. In addition to his documentation of RAR, Shelton took photographs of what he calls “the contextual images,” the lives and landscapes that others defined as “different” and that often fueled racist acts of violence simply for being so. What is presented here are Shelton’s authoritative visual statements as a participant photographer on the social rhythm in Britain at this time and the activist potency of RAR. As a collective activism, RAR’s success depended on individual contributions to fuel the movement’s activities nationwide. This unique national, and eventually international, charge incorporated the visual dynamics of how white and Black RAR contributors and participants styled their bodies as another antagonistic tool against racism. These were acts of style activism: the creation of an activist identity through the considered composition of clothing, accessories, hairstyles, makeup, and body language. Shelton’s images prompt us to remember that the individuals at RAR carnivals, concerts, and demonstrations were the event: they were RAR.There are many versions of what RAR was and its legacy. Syd Shelton: Rock Against Racism offers an autobiographical account of that historic moment. It reflects on how Shelton's work as a photographer contributed to social change at a critical time of political and racial tension in Britain.