Connor Guy
Documentary Photographer
The Condition of the Working Class in Wales is a photographic adaptation of Friedrich Engels seminal sociological work 'The Condition of the Working Class in England' that was published into a book. Engels collected his research materials for this publication between 1842 and 1844, whilst working for the family firm Ermen and Engels in Greater Manchester. Engels is able to break down his research material into 11 chapters within the publication, these chapters are; The Industrial Proletariat, The Great Towns, Competition, Irish Immigration, Results, Single Branches of Industry: Factory-Hands, The Remaining Branches of Industry, Labour Movements, The Mining Proletariat, The Agricultural Proletariat and The Attitude of the Bourgeoisie Towards the Proletariat.
Whilst we must acknowledge that Engels research was finalised 176 years ago, we must also acknowledge that the condition of the working classes in terms of societal structure have not strayed far from what Engels discovered all those years ago, which will be evident in the photographs. Within the project I have taken quotes from the publication and paired them with photographs which embody these quotes, thus turning them into photographic realism as oppose text on a piece of paper.
Due to current circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic the whole of the work was made in Wales. Whilst it would have been preferred to make this work across the entirety of the United Kingdom in order to universalise the photographs, it would have also enabled Engels work to be fully embodied within photographs rather than localised accounts of his research.
"The great towns are chiefly inhabited by working people, since the best case there is on bourgeois for two workers, often for three, here and there for four; these workers have no property whatsoever of their own, and live wholly upon wages, which usually go from hand to mouth. Society, composed wholly of atoms, does not trouble itself about them; leaves them to care for themselves and their families, yet supplies no means of doing this in an efficient and permanent manner."
"The upper bourgeoisie in remoter villas with gardens in Chorlton and Ardwick, or on the breezy heights of Cheetam hill, Broughton, and Pendleton, in free, wholesome country air, in fine, comfortable homes."
"Let us see what the workers have become under the given circumstances, what sort of people they are, what their physical, mental and moral status. When one inflicts bodily injury upon another, such injury that results in death, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call this deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death"
"The great towns are chiefly inhabited by working people, since the best case there is on bourgeois for two workers, often for three, here and there for four; these workers have no property whatsoever of their own, and live wholly upon wages, which usually go from hand to mouth. Society, composed wholly of atoms, does not trouble itself about them; leaves them to care for themselves and their families, yet supplies no means of doing this in an efficient and permanent manner."