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Obituary: Chris Steele-Perkins
Obituary: Chris Steele-Perkins
September 10, 2025
© Miyako Yamada
Christopher Steele-Perkins is considered one of the most influential British documentary photographers of the post-war era. His honest, sometimes critical, often friendly and forgiving eye was directed both at his fellow human beings in Great Britain, as well as those he encountered during his many travels around the world, where he was always interested in empathetic human interaction. In England, he documented society and the daily lives of people in typically British scenarios, but also subcultures, as clearly demonstrated in his first photo book, The Teds (first published in 1979, then republished in 2003 and 2018 by Dewi Lewis).
Steele-Perkins was born on July 28, 1947 in Rangoon, Burma. When he was two years old, he returned to England with his father. He studied Psychology at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and worked for the student newspaper. In 1970, he completed his studies with distinction and began working as a freelance photographer. He moved to London in 1971. In 1975 he worked with EXIT, a collective that dealt with social problems in British cities. In 1976 he joined the Paris-based Viva Agency. He left it in 1979 to become a member of Magnum Photos, where he was made a full member in 1983, and served as its President from 1995 to 1998.
In 1988, the documentary Learn to live with the thalidomide problem – 20 years afterwards earned Steele-Perkins the Leica Oskar Barnack Award. Two decades after the German company Grünenthal caused one of the most devastating scandals in the pharmaceutical industry with its drug, Contergan – marketed as a harmless sleeping pill but responsible for severe malformations in thousands of newborns –, the photographer visited the now adult victims and documented their everyday lives. In an interview for the LOBA website, the photographer later underlined his lifelong commitment: “Corporate and political abuse of the environment and of individuals continues in different ways – like climate change. I was showing how lives were affected by these abuses and, in some small ways, I continue to work on stories concerning these forms of exploitation.”
After marrying his second wife, Miyako Yamada, the photographer began a long-term, photographic exploration of Japan, publishing his book Fuji in the year 2000. A very personal diary from 2001, Echoes, appeared in 2003, and his second Japan book, Tokyo Love Hello, was published in March 2007. He also continued to work in his home country, documenting, among other things, rural life in County Durham, which was published in 2007 under the title Northern Exposures.
Steele-Perkins has always relied on Leica cameras for his work. Consequently he was also involved in the Leica The World Deserves Witnesses campaign. As he stated, “I like my Leica camera because it’s tough, simple and small. I used to have a Leica M4, which had been with me from The Teds, to Afghanistan, and on to Japan.”
Chris Steele-Perkins passed away peacefully in his sleep in Japan, as his wife Miyako shared on Instagram. The world of photography has lost an important contemporary witness who was always aware of the role he played and who hoped that his photography might exert some influence: “I don’t imagine I change the world; I sometimes add my voice to the clamour for a better world.”
Ulrich RüterSteele-Perkins was born on July 28, 1947 in Rangoon, Burma. When he was two years old, he returned to England with his father. He studied Psychology at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and worked for the student newspaper. In 1970, he completed his studies with distinction and began working as a freelance photographer. He moved to London in 1971. In 1975 he worked with EXIT, a collective that dealt with social problems in British cities. In 1976 he joined the Paris-based Viva Agency. He left it in 1979 to become a member of Magnum Photos, where he was made a full member in 1983, and served as its President from 1995 to 1998.
In 1988, the documentary Learn to live with the thalidomide problem – 20 years afterwards earned Steele-Perkins the Leica Oskar Barnack Award. Two decades after the German company Grünenthal caused one of the most devastating scandals in the pharmaceutical industry with its drug, Contergan – marketed as a harmless sleeping pill but responsible for severe malformations in thousands of newborns –, the photographer visited the now adult victims and documented their everyday lives. In an interview for the LOBA website, the photographer later underlined his lifelong commitment: “Corporate and political abuse of the environment and of individuals continues in different ways – like climate change. I was showing how lives were affected by these abuses and, in some small ways, I continue to work on stories concerning these forms of exploitation.”
After marrying his second wife, Miyako Yamada, the photographer began a long-term, photographic exploration of Japan, publishing his book Fuji in the year 2000. A very personal diary from 2001, Echoes, appeared in 2003, and his second Japan book, Tokyo Love Hello, was published in March 2007. He also continued to work in his home country, documenting, among other things, rural life in County Durham, which was published in 2007 under the title Northern Exposures.
Steele-Perkins has always relied on Leica cameras for his work. Consequently he was also involved in the Leica The World Deserves Witnesses campaign. As he stated, “I like my Leica camera because it’s tough, simple and small. I used to have a Leica M4, which had been with me from The Teds, to Afghanistan, and on to Japan.”
Chris Steele-Perkins passed away peacefully in his sleep in Japan, as his wife Miyako shared on Instagram. The world of photography has lost an important contemporary witness who was always aware of the role he played and who hoped that his photography might exert some influence: “I don’t imagine I change the world; I sometimes add my voice to the clamour for a better world.”
© Miyako Yamada
© Chris-Steele-Perkins, Magnum-Photos
© Chris-Steele-Perkins, Magnum-Photos
© Chris-Steele-Perkins, Magnum-Photos
© Leica Oskar Barnack Award
© Chris-Steele-Perkins, Magnum-Photos
© Chris-Steele-Perkins, Magnum-Photos
© Leica Oskar Barnack Award