 | |
| Authors | Adolphe Smith (words) and John Thomson (photos) |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Working class Londoners |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Published | London |
| Publisher | Sampson Low |
Publication date | 1877 |
Street Life in London was a 1877 book written by Adolphe Smith with photography by John Thomson.
The book is considered by some to be the first example of social documentary photography.
Street Life in London was a 1877 publication of a collaboration between the radical [1] social journalist Adolphe Smith and Scottish photographer John Thomson. [2] [3] It was published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, in London. [1]
The authors believed they were continuing the important work of Henry Mayhew, who published London Labour and the London Poor , but that they were adding a unique value by incorporating photography to the ongoing documentation of London's working class poor. [4]
The book gives the reader an insight into the daily lives of working class and poor Londoners. [5] It is arranged around photographs by Thomson with accompanying text by Smith. [5] The texts are brief, but include detail, including information from interviewing the photograph's subjects. [1] Subjects include flower-sellers, chimney-sweeps, shoe-blacks, chair-caners, musicians, dustmen and locksmiths. [1]
Street Life in London is considered the first [6] or at least one of the earliest examples of social documentary photography. [2] The book described its aim "to bring before the public some account of the present condition of the London street folk, and to supply a series of faithful pictures of the people themselves." [2]
Author Emily Kathryn Morgan published Street Life in London: Context and Commentary in 2014 which addresses both the successes and failures of the original book. [7]
Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. He adopted the first name "Eadweard" as the original Anglo-Saxon form of "Edward", and the surname "Muybridge", believing it to be similarly archaic.
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Adolphe Smith Headingley (1846–1924) was a British left-wing political writer. Half-French, Smith Headingley was a member of the First International and took part in the Paris Commune. In 1877–78, he wrote and published the magazine series Street Life in London with photographer John Thomson, to raise awareness of the plight of the city's poor. Smith Headingley played a key role in organising the 1882 International Trades Union Congress and served as an interpreter at successive conferences from 1886 to 1905. It was Smith Headingley that, in the 1890s, popularised the singing of the socialist anthem "The Red Flag" to the tune of "O Tannenbaum".
Mary Pradd often known as Old Mary Pradd, sometimes Mary Pratt, was an English woman murdered in The Borough, London in 1876.