Images at Work

Since the Lumière brothers recorded their employees leaving the factory with the cinématograph, the camera lens has become a crucial witness to the evolutions, histories and politics surrounding labour. Yet, as Harun Farocki remarks on the Lumières’ iconic "La sortie" recordings, “the resolution of the workers’ motion represents something, that the visible movement of people are standing in for the absent and invisible movement of goods, money and ideas circulating in industry.”  

While aiming time and time again to capture the realities of workers and their everyday lives, images of work are also at work, inseparable from the modes of production intrinsic to the cinematic medium. In this vein, the exhibition Images at Work brings together experimental documentaries and artist films capturing the mechanics, manual routines, and poetic experiences of labour in old and new sites of production, while they engage with the history of its representation through the moving image.   

Laura Lux (b. 1990; lives and works in London and Luxembourg) holds a PhD in Film Studies from King's College London. Her research and writings focus on the films of director and media theorist Harun Farocki in the context of May 1968. She has also published on the filmmakers Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet and has participated in the annual conferences of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) and Visible Evidence. In June 2023, she co-organised the Images at Work conference at King's College London in partnership with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the German Screen Studies Network (GSSN).

Photo: Vestige of the nitrate positive fragment of "Lumière film n°91,2 - Sortie d'usine, II", Louis Lumière, 1895 © Institut Lumière

WARNING: The stroboscopic effect of certain filmed scenes in the exhibition may not be suitable for people prone to epileptic seizures or vertigo. Also, certain scenes may offend sensitive people due to their graphic content.