John Thomson

Street Life in London

Industrial Revolution
This period in time represented the major revolution within agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology. Thomson s photography was reflective of that process being shown through the upper and lower classes and how they reacted to the work ethic change. They had to work harder, (despite machinery being developed, and also the population increase from 4 million to 6.5 million) due to the rise in manual labour needed to support such a significant time.

Thompson documented social upheaval within London during the Industrial Revolution, which till that point hadn t been addressed by a photographer. Initially photographers had thought of the Industrial Revolution as a positive thing but as the social implications became clear photographers changed their perspective.

n In this image there is a small

boy at work on the streets, with what appears to be an upperclass man getting his shoes shined as men of lower class observe as bystanders. It is not entirely clear where this was taking place, but due to lack of natural elements such as trees and foliage, we can safely assume that this is in the city possibly down an alley as child labour could be frowned upon in a more open space.

n The characters are fairly anonymous as you can t

see any facial features, the photo is just a suggestion of the sorts of activities that were going on at that particular time. There is a clear social hierarchy between upper and lower class which is shown through both the subject s clothes, and the dominance through the upper-class man s posture overbearing that of the younger child s rough clothing. The way that the upper-class man is lit shows him to be of greater importance than those who are in the shadows who are of much lower class.

n At this time there was an escalation in factory

manufacturing where there was a greater need for employment, however, due to the population increase many children were expected to work as there was a lack of education, many people were out of work and ended up on the street. Houses were small and the streets were cramped, and with the sewage system being left wide open, many people s health was at risk and led to high numbers of death, especially in children.

n Within the following picture, this

high death toll is represented through the two cleaners coming to decontaminate the house of someone who s just died. The fact that this was a common occurrence shows the city s generally accepted lifestyle. In this image, similar to the one before, it shows people hard at work, and through their expressions we can see their daily struggles. In both pictures there is a contrast between the lower-class and the smartly-dressed upper-class overlooking them at work.

n On a technical level, these photos were taken on a

slightly elevated perspective, so that the viewer would gaze at it but not engage themselves with it. The pictures have been cropped, so it s not exactly clear where it s taking place so that life in the city is shown more than the city itself. Usually subjects are situated within the centre of the frame, so that s where the connection takes place. These images are fairly well lit, however, there are essences of shadows that present the undertones of the lower-class life which could also represent the daily struggles of their daily life.

n When we talk about the City s, we can

usually observe it through the people s clothing. The upper-class are separate from those workers who would be deemed as lower-class through the lack of dirt seen, as they would be working jobs that require little to no manual labour. The lower-class would have tattered clothes and oil marks representing the grimy conditions that they are employed to work in.

n These images featured in the

magazine called Street life in London that John Thomson published pictures through monthly, in 1876, as a form of photojournalism to record the lives of common people. These pictures feature people that you would not normally want to associate yourself with, or have any significance tied to. They normally show the undertone to the city and how it is run down and possibly hidden from the city s main activity in Central London.

n To conclude, John Thomson demonstrates

his articulate observations of the industrial revolution through the people, to construct imagery that would document the movement in such a way that focuses on the people, rather than the aspects of machinery being built. He has shown us the social classes and how they compare to each other within this time period, as opposed to the revolution of the technology.