Working Men a book by Glenn Busch

Working Men by Glenn Busch is another important book in the landscape of New Zealand photobooks. Published in 1984 by the National Art Gallery in New Zealand, the book is still nicely presented. The cover is slightly dog-eared and has a couple of small creases, and the contents of the book are in very good condition. The strength of this body of work is as much in the written texts that accompany the portraits. Glenn Busch captured interviews of the subjects, so the texts bring the subjects to life. He only has photographed manual workers, and there are no women in the book. The portraits are sincere, if somewhat bleak; images without artifice. You could say the subjects give a straightforward impression of themselves. The backgrounds are those naturally occurring in the work places of the subjects. Some are very beautiful in themselves - as in the Clive Mundy portrait, and in the image of Malcolm Greaves. Elsewhere, the work environment can seem ominous, as with Norman Pattison, and in the portrait of Kevin Ellis. Seen on their own, the images strive to ennoble and universalise. Joe Sandford, labourer, is any labourer. Stuart Hammar is any apprentice carpenter, and Norman Pattison any coal miner. But taken with the text, we are directed strongly to the particular - to individual men of determination and endeavour. This book makes a fascinating representation of the real.