They may have been made using the same sort of camera and based on the same sort of theme, but the results of photobooks by Paul Graham and Martin Parr could not be more different.

Pictures in Beyond Caring and the Last Resort were taken at around the same time in Thatcherite Britain, but while Parr chose to focus on the middle classes on holiday, Graham took a darker, more serious, approach, and took photos of the unfortunate people affected by the economic circumstance of the time.

The photographer apparently asked for permission to shoot pictures inside the social security offices of the UK, but was denied. He then took to surreptitiously using his camera to get the shots he wanted.

From a camera placed on chairs, or held at waist level, Graham produced some poignant pictures, reflecting a life out of balance. Subjects in pictures were unaware they were being photographed, offering an aspect of grim reality to the resulting shots.

A reviewer for Blogscritic said: "What they are affected by is the tedium and desperation of bleak and sometimes filthy government offices, usually crowded and understaffed, where waits could last up to three hours and the payoff could be zero."

Unemployment topped three million during the Thatcher era.