Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/larry-herman-21584" aria-label="More by Larry Herman" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Larry Herman</a>
Anti Iraq War Demonstrations Farewell
Gift Eric and Louise Franck London Collection 2017
<p>These black and white photographs by Larry Herman (1942​2021) are mostly taken from the series titled <span>Waged London</span>, compiled over several years from around 2007 (P14898– P14913). Herman’s work is defined by its social commentary and <span>Waged London</span> typifies his approach. The series documents the workers who keep London’s essential services running, but who earn a fraction of what is earned by the bankers and brokers who maintain the city’s position as a global financial force. It includes photographs of people who work in hospitals and on building sites, clean public toilets and cook in restaurant kitchens. Without these workers the city would collapse, yet they live in relative poverty. In many cases, the people in Herman’s images show signs of exhaustion, strain and boredom as a result of often hard physical labour. Yet Herman is optimistic about the future of workers’ rights, commenting: ‘Five or six generations down the line, the low-paid will get organised again. I’m trying to provide an in-depth, photographic analysis of the working class in London in the first decade of the 21st century.’ (Quoted in Arnot 2008, accessed 30 January 2017.)</p>
paper print photograph gelatin silver
Anti Iraq War Demonstrations, from the series Farewell
image: 437 × 296 mm
Gift Eric and Louise Franck London Collection 2017
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<p>These black and white photographs by Larry Herman (1942​2021) are mostly taken from the series titled <i>Waged London</i>, compiled over several years from around 2007 (<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/herman-chinatown-from-the-series-farewell-p14898" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14898</span></a>– <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/herman-pub-kings-cross-p14913" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14913</span></a>). Herman’s work is defined by its social commentary and <i>Waged London</i> typifies his approach. The series documents the workers who keep London’s essential services running, but who earn a fraction of what is earned by the bankers and brokers who maintain the city’s position as a global financial force. It includes photographs of people who work in hospitals and on building sites, clean public toilets and cook in restaurant kitchens. Without these workers the city would collapse, yet they live in relative poverty. In many cases, the people in Herman’s images show signs of exhaustion, strain and boredom as a result of often hard physical labour. Yet Herman is optimistic about the future of workers’ rights, commenting: ‘Five or six generations down the line, the low-paid will get organised again. I’m trying to provide an in-depth, photographic analysis of the working class in London in the first decade of the 21st century.’ (Quoted in Arnot 2008, accessed 30 January 2017.)</p>
<p>Larry Herman was born in New York City and trained as a sculptor at the New School, New York. He emigrated to Britain during the Vietnam War, stopped photographing in the early 1980s and worked as a train driver and guard on the London Underground, before moving to Sheffield to work as a welder in various steel mills. He began photographing again in 1993 and returned to London in 1999.</p>
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<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Chris Arnot, ‘Slave Wages’, <i>The Guardian</i>, 16 April 2008, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2008/apr/16/socialexclusion.photography">https://www.theguardian.com/society/2008/apr/16/socialexclusion.photography</a>, accessed 30 January 2017.</p>
<p>Helen Delaney<br/>January 2017</p>
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Summary
2024-02-02T00:00:00
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