WARSAW.- Intended to be a documentary of British photography from the late 60s to the late 80s, the No Such Thing as Society exhibition draws on the British Council and the Arts Council collections to construct a new image of two stormy decades of British history. In this period, British society experienced turmoil and change due to deindustrialization and Thatcherism, facing strikes by miners and the conflict in Northern Ireland, compounded by radical changes in social structure.

The No Such Thing as Society bears witness to these times, by showing 137 photographs of 33 documentary photographers. It takes its title from Margaret Thatcher's most memorable quote, "there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families". The review begins at the end of the 60s, when Pop Art firmly grounded photography in contemporary culture. The exhibition runs chronologically through six themes that reflect contrasting aspects of British society during that period.

The early 70s were a time of new and independent attitudes with documentary photography focused on representing social reality. The movement's leading representative, Tony Ray-Jones, worked to show the comic aspects of class hierarchy and absurdity of human behavior arising from traditional British limitations. The social costs of de-industrialization and globalization are the main themes of works by documentary photographers in northern England in the late 70s and 80s. The mood of social catastrophe portrayed by the works of Chris Killip is continued in the dark and claustrophobic office interiors photographed by Paul Graham and bright-colored images by Martin Parr.

The status of photography was grounded in British art milleaux by the end of the 80s. The theme of disappointment with politics is expounded on in the urban landscapes of Ian Dobbie, while more conventional forms of press photography concerning urban conflicts in Northern Ireland and the streets of South London appear in works by Philip Jones-Griffith and Paul Graham.