Women at work: photographs from the V&A Collection

During my curatorial research fellowship at the V&A, I have been pursuing photographs of people working from the V&A’s vast collection of photographs. But I found myself keep returning to photographs where women are working.

Part of what drew me to these particular photographs was the places where that work was happening. When we think of a workplace, we imagine a setting clearly made for work. It could be a factory, workshop or office etc. That was there in many of the photographs, but interestingly, women’s work was not confined to those particular spaces. It went way beyond that. It has often happened in places such as at home, in fields, on the streets, in markets or simply, along with everyday life, spaces that are much less clearly defined as workspaces.

Though not all images are like that, in fact, in some images, especially those made in factories, the work is immediately visible. Machinery fills the space in those images. The surrounding suggests that we are looking at workers.

But in other images, it takes a little longer to notice. Upon closer observation, the work might become visible through hand’s position, the way a body is leaning, a tool nearby, material lying close, or an exchange happening in front of the camera.

The photographs I have selected here move between these different ways of seeing people at work. Rather than trying to depict every work that women do, they made me think about something much simpler such as how do we identify work in a photograph?

Émile Fréchon’s Elderly woman weaving was one of the photographs that first made me pay attention to this. There is no big machine or distinct workplace surrounding the woman, in this photograph. Instead, we understand the work through her actions. Through her hands, the material in front of her and the position of her body draw us towards the act of weaving. It is a very quiet image. And perhaps because of that, it asks us to look more slowly and closely. The work does not seem separate from everyday life, it sits within it. Even though the space around her is ordinary and not a typical workplace setting, the work, however, is skilled and concentrated.

I noticed something similar in George Bunzl’s ‘Mexico – Girl Spinning’ photograph as well. Spinning, sewing, weaving and many other forms of textile work are often made up of small, repeated movements. And because these actions are repeated so frequently, they can start to look ordinary and can be easily overlooked. The finished textile may eventually become the object that is collected, displayed or admired. A photograph can bring our attention back to the person, the gesture and the process behind it.

In another photograph by Fréchon, two women are seen digging up potatoes in a field. Here, the field itself has become the workplace. Their bodies bend towards the ground and from their posture and movement reveal what is happening. Here, we recognise labour through action.

Pamela Bone’s Flower Seller Udaipur takes us to some other place. In this photograph, work appears through an exchange in a public space. The title indicates us that we are looking at a flower seller, but the photograph gives us other clues, such as two figures leaning towards one another, their hands meet almost at the centre of the frame, the flower and plant material between them, and the moment of exchange. The workplace is not clearly marked. It becomes visible through an encounter here.

When we discuss work, Eric Freeborn’s Women at work in a factory feels very different and very familiar. The large machinery immediately takes over the scene. We do not have to search for signs of workplace or work. The industrial setting tells us straight away that this is a workplace and that women are part of it.

Looking these photographs made me realise how differently work can appear in an image. A factory machine makes one kind of labour easy to recognise while a spindle, a piece of cloth, a field or an exchange in a market asks us to pay extra attention in order to understand work. The minute details like hands, posture, tools, materials, movement, and the spaces around the women made me curious. It’s interesting to see that these tiny actions convey information about work before a caption. When combined, these images serve as a reminder that work does not always has a setting, sometimes it sits quietly within everyday life and go unnoticed. And perhaps that is what I have found most interesting while looking through these images, not simply finding photographs of women who are working, but noticing the different ways in which work becomes visible and how it may or may not shape our understanding of work and workplace.