Born in Burma, Chris Steele-Perkins moved from Rangoon to England with his family in1949. He graduated with honours in psychology at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, while working as a photographer and picture editor for the student newspaper. In 1971 he moved to London and started working as a freelance photographer working abroad with relief organizations and doing travel assignments. In1975 he became one of the founding members of EXIT, a group dealing with social problems in British cities.

His first and much loved book The Teds was published in 1979. Joining Magnum in the same year, he soon began working extensively in the Third World, documenting trouble-spots in places like Bangladesh, Beirut, Africa and Afghanistan. His time spent in Afghanistan brought him much critical acclaim and his book Afghanistan was published in 2000.

Over the years, his documentary stories have won him several prestigious awards, including the Tom Hopkinson Prize for British Photojournalism (1988), the Oskar Barnack Prize (1988) and the Robert Capa Gold medal (1989).

After spending a considerable time in Japan, his latest long-term project, Chris’ book Mount Fuji was published in 2001. The Teds was reprinted in 2002 and his latest book Echoes in 2004.

See Chris Steele-Perkins’ photographs looking at climate change and human rights.