Found this picture on the Guardian site.   The photographer is unknown, but the picture was taken in 1889 of the building of London’s underground system, showing the construction of the Central line. It opened in July 1900.

Photograph: Unknown photographer/The British Library

Photographers who Photographed Workers

Bill Brandt

Bill Brandt published The English at Home (1936) and A Night in London (1938), which examined British life, particularly its class system and behaviour.  His Parlourmaid and Underparlourmaid Ready to Serve Dinner (1932-35) is full of astute social observation.

Tina Modotti

Tina Modotti came into her own in Mexico,  photographing with a concern for injustice in society.

Gordon Parkes

Gordon Parkes photographed the life and work of Ella Watson, an office cleaner.

Paul Wombell

In the 1970s, Paul Wombell commented on this construct in a photomontage, which contrasted the fantasy tourist world with the reality of Britain’s poorly paid workers who had come from Asia, Africa and the West Indies, many of whom performed menial labour whites were no longer willing to do.  Air India (1975) consisted of two photographs placed side by side to form a basic montage. One was an advertisement that appeared regularly in art magazines such as Art & Artists.

(From Photography: A Critical Introduction by Liz Wells and  John A Walker’s Left Shift: Radical Art in 1970s Britain)

Frank Meadow Sutcliffe

In the 1890s, Frank Meadow Sutcliffe documented the village of Whitby as both fishing village and a holiday resort over a long period of time.  His work drew on the picturesque qualities of much of the labour involved, but also added new qualities of directness and close observation (Wells, 2004:80).

Humphrey Spender

Humphrey Spender photographed workers in the 1950s, depicting workers doing their jobs.  These pictures are from Getty Images.

Men at Work

In the Guardian Magazine today, there is a feature on Ukranian Miners.  Photographer Gleb Kosorukov has captured them at one of Europe's largest pits as they return to the surface after a six-hour shift.

These pictures are of a series of 100.

The video can be found on:         

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2010/feb/13/photography-ukrainian-miners

Unseen UK

Unseen UK by Stephen Gill is a book of photographs of everyday life as seen by Royal Mail postmen and women during their working day. The photos are a selection of the 20,000 submitted, published to raise money for the charity Help the Hospices.