Background

My mother wanted a better life for me than the one she was living. A widow with a daughter to raise properly and in a healthy environment with many opportunities. She decided that the only way to do so was to quit her job as a secretary in Silute, Lithuania and travel to the UK. The main aim was to work until she had saved up enough income to bring me over to her and start a new life together. I was then left in the care of my grandmother from my mother’s side along with my cousin who was also under my grandmother’s care.  I was eight years old when my mother left to go to the UK and it was a wave of emotions that over took us both up until we were reunited on my arrival three years later. I then started a new chapter of my life and went to school in Peterborough, UK. Ever since as far as I could remember individuals and society fascinated me, I always enjoyed capturing moments and sceneries with any camera I could get my hands on. After starting college and getting one step closer to my dreams of becoming a photographer, I had to work in order to help gather savings for myself and prepare me for university. I started a full-time job at a factory in Leicester, UK when I was 19 years of age and worked up to 15 hours a day. This was nothing similar to what my mother had to endure because the factories have significantly changed since she was working. There were new statutes and legislations that were put in place to give employees of factories safer and happier environment. This however did not make them perfect; I still had to go through nights of barely sleeping and work with little to no breaks.

Introduction

   In total there are about 8634 factories in the UK. There was always a big demand for workers who were willing to work long hours and sometimes under difficult circumstances. Some factories would employ up to 60,000 people if we look back in time. However, how much of a coincidence would it be if immigrants from the same city in the same country were to meet in one of those factories? That is what I am trying to portray in my images of the 12 individuals who are now legally residing in the UK. These 8 women and 3 men were working in a factory located in Peterborough, UK. Without any previous planning or close relations they all ended up in the same factory sometimes working up to 16 hours a day. This factory, “Action Pack”, employed approximately 40 individuals with a ratio of about 3:1, men being the majority. These individuals did not previously communicate even though they were all from a city called Silute located in Lithuania. All of them met each other between the dates 2000 - 2003. They are now close friends and stay in contact this shows how a coincidence can be very meaningful. Their story is a heart-breaking one, it is a bond between very similar people, who were illegal at the time they met and were employed in this particular factory. However, all worked for the purposes of providing for their families, struggled through hardships and being shockingly underpaid to work in order to survive.

 Incidents that occurred whilst working in the Factory:

An employee got let go because she wanted to finish her work faster in order to get paid more to provide for her family, Quote: “I got fired because the manager told us to go on a break, I only had 4 magazines left to pack up to finish off a full palette and asked for an extra 2 minutes to finish it.”

Due to long hours of working an employee dislocated her toe and had to endure surgery. It was a result of heavy lifting.

They also received sanctions similar to children. They were told to not disobey any orders; in the case that they do disobey they will be placed on unpaid suspensions for up to two weeks. This caused many problems with bills being paid let or sometimes not having enough money to pay at all.

They even endured negligence resulting in one employee taking legal action and receiving compensation. Approximately between £1000 - £2000 was received for the damages that were caused whilst working in the factory.

Women suffered the most in the long term. They sustaining a number of mental and physical problems, such as; numb and swollen feet, legs and hands as well as extreme back pain and verbal abuse.

Final outcome images

Lewis Hine

Lewis Hine was and is one of the first seriously taken Documentary photographers that explored the factory workers. By doing that he was hoping to show the world the reality with in the factory workers mainly children which brings us to child labor. 

No one knows the outcome of their life.

This is why I am looking in to the EX factory workers and see their point of view about factories;  their treatment there whilst they been working in the WAREHOUSE or FACTORY.

 

portraits as such are natural, exposing the person as they are.

the image contrast is quite soft and gentle.

The image is sharp and well composed. The elderly Lady is not posing or showing the awareness of the camera in front.

This image has a good composition but the child does not come first to mind as the white background is standing out more than the boy. He is in a shade, which takes his attention away from the subject matter which is the small boy and not the background.

August Sander

August Sander has always been an inspiration to my photography work. Sanders photographs Document people in their day to day lives. Within his photographs we can depict their social class.
We can see that by the chosen location and their clothing wise.

 The image of the girl gave me an inspiration of composition and the simplicity of their facial expressions. The photographs are in black and white which is due to the early 20th century photography technology. Hi photographs are sharp, good grey contrast, good composition and the use of the location.

His photographs inspired me to do a project on different social classes in the 21st century, exploring their past and current living conditions.

Simon Norfolk

  Simon Norfolk is one of the documentary photographers that took interet in war, and its effects on many things: the physical shape of our cities and natural environments, social memory, the psychology of societies, and more.

Norfolks photographs are very deep in to his subjects.To identify his meaning full photographs you have to have knowledge of historical events or look further in to the photograph .

 

Stuart Miller

Stuart Miller Focuses on Portrait photography bringing Documentary context in to his photography work. He photographs his subjects in their working environment where they feel comfortable and relaxed. 

His style of the images is by bringing out the colours giving them a  strong contrast but keeping the softness on their faces.

This image is my favorite from Millers photography. the reasoning for this is the sharpness of his eyes and the depth in them, where the skin tone is soft, blending in it with shadows that surround his face. The subject is making eye contact with the viewer, which makes the viewer engaged with the photograph and the person in it.

Uli Heckman

Uli Heckman Documents peoples successes in life. His approach to his subjects is to produce one or two combined images that describes the person, photographing them in their working environment.

His main approach towards people and his subjects is to photograph them up close which expresses their face features. The eyes are the main subject in his models by looking at their eyes we are able to tell their life story and what they have experienced.

These are two of my favorite images from Heckmans work.

The reasoning for this is that the focus is completely on them, they are sharp and tell the truth.

Revealing their true self.

Mark Katzman

Mark Katzman's work is analyzing and Documenting workers and the work that they are achieving. All of the workers seem to be happy and well respected in their work of field.

The project 'Behind the Factory' is going to be focused on workers that have been working in a factory or a warehouse, and the relation ship between the employees.

The man is painting the fence with joy and the passion for his job. The colours that Mark has used for his images a re quite vibrant. the images are touched up by PhotoShop.

This photograph shows the relationship between the staff. They are helping each other  as we can tell in this photo. The man in front is carrying the ladder holding it with two hands, the man behind is following the man in front. Which seems that the man is going to help him with the task that they have been set to do. Creating better bonds between the employees.