Building the railways

As part of my research for the final assignment of this course, I have been looking at the railways and in particular the people who built them.  Little is known about these men and their families who lived in terrible conditions and worked in dangerous situations.  We tend to read about them being hard workers, big drinkers and prone to violence.  They were feared by the townspeople where they showed up.  They were viewed with suspicion.  They lived on the edge of society.

Although we have few accounts from the navvies themselves about their life we do have the work of a young photographer SWA Newton.  Newton photographed the navvies in their workplace and their homes which were often huts or tents at the side of the road.

In his series of images which are published in Railways and Rural Lie, he provides us with an insight into these people's lives.  The images are dark and contrasty.  They have a raw and grimy feel to them.  You can feel the dirt and grit just looking at them.

Their homes are little more than shacks.  Their faces drawn.  The young men look like they have aged before their time.

What I would like to take from Newton's images is the starkness and the unsentimental feel they have.  They present the viewer with what is in front of the photographer no matter how hard those sights may be to look at.

I also like the darkness in the images.  There is a sense of foreboding; a sense of doom.You are left in little doubt about the toughness of the subjects and their strength of character.