Working Conditions

The Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries radically changed the nature of human labor. That era is defined by a global shift from producing goods by hand to manufacturing by machines and technologies that emphasized efficiency. 

Photography was itself introduced to the public in 1839 as, among other things, a time- and labor-saving technology to record images from the visible world more quickly and accurately than painting or drawing. The subsequent development of photographic media has thus been intertwined with the culture of labor ever since. In addition to the camera’s technical use as an instrument to record, photographers have also created images over the decades that have helped shape how we think about work and the politics of labor. 

his exhibition explores the myriad ways in which photographs have communicated ideas about labor since the nineteenth century through examples from The Ringling’s photography permanent collection.

Credit: Overview from museum website