Chris Steele-Perkins, photographer of the iconic British Teddy Boys, dies

Rock'n'roll never dies, but Chris Steele-Perkins is dead. The Magnum photographer died on Monday, September 8, at the age of 78, in England, where he had returned for health reasons. But he had been living in Japan since 1998, married to Miyako Yamada, a Japanese woman. It is above all his Teddy Boys, young, violent and stylish rebels from London, that we remember today. Commissioned in the 1970s by New Society magazine, Chris Steele-Perkins covered the second wave of Teds to illustrate an article, a report that turned into a long-term project. In black and white, he photographed these working-class thugs in velvet jackets with punch and tenderness—a nod to Edwardian England. A childhood fear had undoubtedly fueled his fascination with these extroverted, feisty little guys, terrors of political correctness, fans of rockabilly: "Every town had its own Teds who hung around on street corners, smoking and growling at people. My father would criticize them sharply and threaten to hand me over to them if I didn't behave. This may have helped to pique my curiosity when I grew up." Published in 1979, the book The Teds became iconic, a classic of documentary photography, much noticed by the fashion world. "What I tried to do was document a subculture, and a fairly important subculture in British society," he said. "I realized