Visualizing Labour: Photographing the Factory Gates in May 1968. Issue 2 (July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Partridge, Benjamin
• Is Part Of: Labour history review. Volume 84:Issue 2(2019)
• Page Start: 175
• Page End: 201
• Publication Date: 2019-07
• Subjects: twentieth century -- trade unions -- popular politics -- social history; Labor -- History -- Periodicals; Working class -- History -- Periodicals; Arbeidsomstandigheden; Arbeidersbeweging; Labor; Working class; History; Periodicals; 305.562
• DOI: 10.3828/lhr.2019.9
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0961-5652

Abstract

Abstract : This article examines the photographic depiction of factory gates during the strikes of May and June 1968 in France. These photographs form a distinctive subset of images of May 1968, offering a key visualization of the labour dispute and its relation to the broader political movement. Using research on images from newspapers, photojournalists collections and archival sources, it seeks to explore a facet of the visualization of 1968 often neglected in representations focused on street protest and university occupations in Paris, and situate these photographs in a broader historical context of images of the factory.