Gallery

Last updated: 10/07/09

Gallery

Welcome to the Working Lives Research Institute Gallery section.

We aim to display the work of photographers and artists who work on labour and working class life. As we develop the site we want to showcase images as well as acting as a link to other visual resources. If you are a photographer or artist whose work reflects on aspects of working life and would like to display your art here, or link to our site please contact Max Watson at Working Lives.

Manual Labour: LabourStart Photo of the Year - 2009

LabourStart's photo of the year 2009 was won by KM Asad, with 'Manual Labour':

'A Bangladeshi boy works in a shipbuilding factory in down town. These factories employ young boys as apprentices without pay for the first few years. They work in extreme conditions without safety tools like gloves, goggles, and other protective gears. In exchange, they learn the skills of the trade. But this costs them loss of health and education...'

Go here to see KM Asad's photo stream on the Flickr site, and here to view the other photos that were shortlisted.

Eric Lee, of LabourStart, said: "I'd like to congratulate the winner, the four runners-up and all those who submitted photos... I also want to thank Derek Blackadder for coordinating this effort, and the three judges -- all outstanding photographers themselves -- Mac Urata, David Bacon and Gretchen Donart. I encourage all of you who take photos, or have an interest in photos, to join the more than 500 trade unionists who are already part of the union photographers' group on Flickr, here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/union/

WLRI extends our congratulations to KM Asad and wishes all the contestors good luck in their working lives as photographers. We also encourage submission of photo projects for these pages. See also images of the LabourStart photo competition - 2008.

Waiting for Change: Restaurant Workers in the Informal Economy

East London charity Toynbee Hall’s Transact team recently co-launched with Community Links, a new report called ‘Waiting for Change’ which examines restaurant workers and the informal economy in Brick Lane’s curry mile. The research reveals a picture of staff in east London’s Brick Lane restaurants trapped in poverty with long working hours for cash in hand pay as low as £3 an hour. Poor English and a lack of access to education is making it difficult for them to move on to better paid formal employment. See here for more details, read the 'Waiting for Change' report here (pdf download).

Port-based seafarers

Professor Erol Kahveci's recent research focus has been on living and working conditions of seafarers, and his research methods include collecting photos as visual data. Below is a small sample of his photos. See the ITF-funded 'Port-based welfare workers for seafarers' project page for a summary of his current work, and email Erol for more information.

Port-based welfare workers for seafarers, photos by Erol Kahveci.

Representing ethnic minority workers

Researchers on the ESRC-funded Ethnic Minority Representation at Work project have been working with a well-known photojournalist to capture visual images of three minority ethnic communities in London. The project explores how identity, community and social networks interlink to provide support and advice for individuals who find themselves faced with problems at work and we hoped to capture some of these themes through the use of photography.

In talking about his work, Jim Hodson, explained:

‘My reportage work captures the 'real' world as the wonderfully exhilarating and exceptional place that it truly is. The result is believable, trustworthy, honest and, at the same time, visually appealing. Uppermost in my mind is the dignity of the individual. I have worked in the densely populated cities of Asia to the desolate areas of Siberia, and from the boardrooms of the City of London to the waste dumps of Jakarta. Having over 20 years experience, I am well versed in working in awkward and pressurised situations.’

In visits to the Kurdish community of Hackney, the black Caribbean community in Lambeth and the South Asian communities of Ealing, Jim has produced a striking collection of images that will be used for the Ethnic Minority Representation at Work (EMRAW) project. The research team hopes to use these in a series of exhibitions in each of the areas towards the end of the project. Contact Jane Holgate, j.holgate@londonmet.ac.uk for further information on the research, or go to the EMRAW page.

Link to EMRAW project page; Link to Jim Hodson, photographer.

Link to EMRAW project page; Link to Jim Hodson, photographer.

Link to EMRAW project page; Link to Jim Hodson, photographer.

Link to EMRAW project page; Link to Jim Hodson, photographer.

The Sights of New York

A diverse collection of scenes from a three-month study emphasising the variety in cultural background, employment, and colour in and around the streets of the infamous Times Square, NYC.

"Sonalle thirsts for a deeper knowledge and understanding of universal life and society. She travelled alone for eight years through Europe, Asia and Latin America observing and participating in the kaleidoscope of cultures and sights encountered. Sonalle is now driven by the desire to transform her journey, progressing, through her photographic story, in order to communicate what is frequently left unsaid; to deliver an insight into that detail we may not always perceive, or that we sometimes try to ignore."

http://www.sonalle.com/

Working Girls

These 'Working Girls' photos were taken for a fundraiser for the NSPCC by photographer Ali Mobasser in 2002. Mobasser told WLRI:

"I asked prostitutes in the Kings Cross area to take me to the locations where they would take their men by night and shot them in their working environment. It was at a time when Kings Cross was starting to get cleaned up (talk of Eurostar had begun) and they were being pushed out of the area up the road into Camden. Instead of being helped, the council just moved them to another borough."

Working Girls

Labour Photo of the Year - 2008

The winner of LabourStart's 'Labour Photo of the Year - 2008' is Robert Day, a branch secretary with the British public sector PCS in Birmingham. He is the winner of the first-ever Labour Photo of the Year competition organized by LabourStart. Day's photo -- entitled 'Trade Unions are Fun!' -- shows trade unionists marching through Birmingham, led by banners and drummers, on 24 April 2008, below.

Almost 3,000 LabourStart readers from around the world voted in the competition. Five finalists were chosen from 101 entries by a panel of three labour photographers. The final five photos are being made available to union publications worldwide, and will also appear in the gallery on Union Island on Second Life and also as featured photographs on the LabourStart main page.

Runners up included Brooke Anderson, Organizing Director of the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) in Oakland, California (USA); Khaled Hasan from Bangladesh; Gerardo Raffa from UNIA, a union in Switzerland; and Hossam el-Hamalawy from Egypt. The four runners-up will receive a one-year Flickr.com account, the winner a two-year account. Link to LabourStart.

Robert Day - UK: 'Trade Unions are Fun!' Robert Day's websites: http://www.robertdayimages.co.uk/ & http://pcsgafpics.fotopic.net/

Hossam el-Hamalawy - Egypt: 'Real estate tax collectors strike'

Gerardo Raffa - 'Swiss Railway Workers Demonstration in Bern against the closing of the Officine in Bellinzona on the 19.03.2008

Khaled Hasan - Bangladesh: 'Freedom of a Labour'

Brooke Anderson - USA: 'Service Workers on Strike'

People’s Pathways to Northumberland Park, Tottenham

Over the last 50 years, the population of Northumberland Park in Tottenham has been in constant flux as a variety of immigrant groups have followed pathways to the area and moved on. This collaborative project between the photographer Joanne O’Brien and the social researcher Marc Craw worked with over 60 residents of different ages and backgrounds to present a picture of the social history and culturaldiversity of the area. The Joining Up Northumberland Park regeneration programmein Haringey Council funded the project.

Link to People's Pathways website

Chris Clunn

Since 1989 photographer Chris Clunn has worked mainly on portraiture and the documenting of London life. Between 1993 to 1996 Chris meticulously documented working life at Smithfield Meat Market, including the demise of the workforce and its unique working practices. In the mid 1990s the market underwent its most radical changes since it was opened in 1887. As new EEC regulations were brought in the old Dickensian ways of working were phased out and a whole workforce of men was made redundant.

Link to website

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Guinness Project

In June 2005 the Guinness brewery at Park Royal in West London closed after almost 70 years of production. These images form part of an ongoing collaboration between photographer David McCairley and sociologists Tim Strangleman and Bridget Henderson of the Working Lives Research Institute at London Metropolitan University. The project, "Guinness Was Good For Us", records in words and pictures the working lives of Guinness employees in the brewery’s final months.