Oxford: The Last Hurrah

It was a subject that had been written about and dramatised but I don't think any photographers had ever tackled before. There was a change going on. Someone described it as a 'last hurrah' of the upper classes." - Dafydd Jones Oxford University at the start of the eighties, rife with black ties and ballgowns. A change was on its way - best described by a newspaper as 'the Return of the Bright Young Things'. At this time, Oxford University was synonymous with the wealthy, the powerful and the privileged. Many of the young people in these pictures moved on to have careers in the establishment including Boris Johnson and David Cameron. In these photographs, however, their youth is undeniable: teenagers in full suits celebrate the rise of Thatcher in England and Reagan in America, in between punting on the river, chasing romance and partying through the night. "It was Thatcher's Britain, a period of celebration for those that had