British working class photography 1989 – 2024

First of all when did I get so old that a collaboration of art can be dated to the last 35 years, from the date I married and had my first child. But it definitely means that I was there! So I thought it might be fun to explore, not least you don’t get much more working class than a dustbin mans daughter! Although I married up, as so many pretty working class girls did in the 80’s, the class divide never quite putting us in our place. We didn’t really look at it like that, we just married for love. I was shocked when trying to get into an area of social work in my fifties, during the long and arduous interview process, to be judged and verbally commented on that it was ‘very unusual for people to marry out of their class’, by some snooty middle class social worker! You see a working class background is stamped into your DNA, no matter how much you earn or where you manage to go to university, your identity is clearly visible for any that care to take more than a casual glance. It’s in the way you look, dress, walk, eat, talk. I for one have always been proud of my identity but if I weren’t it would be practically impossible to escape and those that have and try to discard their heritage, I feel lose something of themselves, they’ve sold out and are then without identity, never quite fitting into the middle class world that they try to aspire to, their working class friends never quite trusting them. I’m lucky, I live in an area where the working class, who managed to stay in quite an expensive area, are still tight knit. We have weathered the storms and when we get together we often just have a good laugh at how damn poor we were.

So obviously, I was going to go and see this exhibition. I’m hooked before I go. It did not disappoint.

The End of History brings together twenty six contemporary working class artists who use photography to explore the nuances of life in all its diversity both inwards into their own lives and communities and outwards to the wider world. Here are just three.

Kelly O’Brien, a visual artist and lecturer’s work was I feel very powerful with her look at hidden histories, her Nan’s back and bra painted quite the picture of hard work and sacrifice. For me, I think it was one of the strongest pieces in the whole exhibition and completely inspirational. If you were to take a political stance, you can immediately see that all pigs are not equal just from this one image.

Anna Magnowska’s an illustrator, sexual health nurse and art physiotherapist has had to juggle several roles to support herself in her art practice. Her encounters while working as a waitress were particularly informative of the power dynamics within society. Having worked as a waitress as a pretty 21 year old, I can testify that you get this in all directions from the power plays that bored middle class housewife’s or their business owning husbands direct at you, (this coffee’s too cold, its been sat there 3/4 of an hour while you chat, I’d like a free top up – every single time they come in), the leery men who think you’re game for anything, or the head waiter that you never go anywhere near in a dark corridor or else he will try to pin you against the wall and feel you up.

Another favourite was Tom Wood’s pieces on bus journeys. Buses are the domain of the working class in a way that no matter how many incentives the government trial (and the £2.00 a trip is a reasonable incentive but don’t let me bang on about how practically everywhere, especially London, get’s free travel at 60 years of age) you will never get the middle class out of their vehicles, no matter how much you tax them or how cheap you make the bus. (unless its short hops in London) People will travel on the tube and trains, but a smelly old bus where in my opinion you can see the whole of working class life unfold before your very eyes, the middle classes would rather look away.

I love bus street photography, I find it fascinating, the bus is a complete world within itself. I find bus travel very illuminating and wonderfully chatty. You can make strong connections in five minutes and never see them again. I find myself thinking about people I’ve met or seen, talked to, or didn’t. Bus travel is often a window into a person’s soul, a great leveller, where people are just themselves, where they sit and be, where everything can be revealed without them realising. The joy of going shopping, the weekly trip out, going to pick up the grandchildren, visiting the sick in hospital, the grind and tiredness of work, new outfits with a new boyfriend, its all there ready to be revealed as you hop on the bus to your destination. Other artists i’ve found and loved was Nick Turpins, On the Night Bus and Night Owls, Portraits of Life on the Night Bus by Sarah Lee if you fancy a look.

Getting back to Tom Wood’s pieces, these two caught my eye. Aspirational fashion for young working women juggling children and buses and graffitied bus stops are the epitome of the working class space, almost as iconic as a fag ash and smoke filled sports and social club.

I think a very thoughtful show to take time over.

And of course the bonus was that I have now been to see Dippy, she was still waiting for me and i’m happy to say will be here until next year.