Work & Workers By various photographers

Everything changed in the18th century. It was around this time that William Blake witnessed the countless factories spring up around the British landscape and spew great columns of black smoke intowhich appeared just a little while later. They could see that people would become trapped in the inescapable maze of menial work, reduced to cogs in a tireless machine. Capitalism had arrived and, despite Marx and Engels' best efforts, it remains with us to this day. As a result, the notion of work and employment, whether we like it or not, is an inherent quality that not only defines who we are to ourselves but also to how we are potentially perceived by those around us. It is a concept that is political, social, cultural and economic.