These British gangster photos defined a generation, and will shock you even now

Nearly 30 years after photographing London’s criminal underworld, Jocelyn Bain Hogg’s landmark gangster series The Firm returns to Leica Gallery London.

Today’s films, pay-for-tv dramas and endless true-crime podcasts tap into public appetites for the British gangster. Almost 30 years ago, documentary photographer Jocelyn Bain-Hogg walked into their world with his Leica and a proposition. ‘I never ever lied to them. I made it clear I didn’t want to photograph their own presentation – no posed pictures and no complicity,’ he remembers.

Bernie’s boys. Image credit: Jocelyn Bain Hogg

The Firm photographic series made Bain Hogg’s reputation. The work was first published as a hardback book in 2001 and paperback in 2003. Glossy editorials across the globe delivered pages to readers who…