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'Work' in 100 images

100 images Created 20 Nov 2008

These 100 introduction images come from the book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton, published by Penguin in April 2009.

Alongside the main 650 picture gallery, this edit covers the subjects and chapters covered in the book: Logistics; Accountancy; Electricity; Rocket Science; Biscuits; Tuna Fishing; Aviation; River Business and the unpublished Couture chapter.

This gallery is part of a short series relating to this book, though their titles have in some cases been adapted for this archive. They are viewed here as a showcase but will be released for sale on the 1st April 2009 at Photoshelter and Alamy or exclusively at CORBIS and therefore each file has its own restrictions which can be read within its metadata.

The book pictures are reproduced in black and white but all appear here in colour.

A blog story about the project's photography is at:
http://wp.me/p3fbj-4j

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  • A Royal Mail lorry speeds up the darkening M1 motorway loaded with parcels and letters.
    DIRFT019-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • The form of a giant generic warehouse glows from ambient light at the DIRFT warehouse logistics park in Daventry, Northamptonshire England. Bare trees without foliage are seen in the foreground on this cold winter night. We see the building low in the picture and the sky graduates from light into near darkness. This 365 acre site off Junction 18 of the M1 motorway is a hub for road, rail and service infrastructure, some 2.3m sq.ft. of distribution and manufacturing floorspace had been constructed by 2004 and occupiers including Tesco?s, Tibbett & Britten plc, Ingram Micro, Royal Mail, the W.H. Malcolm Group, Eddie Stobart Ltd, Wincanton and Exel, have been attracted to this unique logistics location.
    DIRFT057-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • Red clock hangs from warehouse roof of cross-docking area of of Royal Mail's DIRFT logistics park in Daventry
    DIRFT168-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • In front of an industrial doorway with a safety handrail and near empty parking bay markings, a stencilled arrow points from left to right at the DIRFT warehouse logistics park in Daventry, Northamptonshire England. Bright light glows from the warehouse wall, shining on to the car park creating an almost daylight landscape. This 365 acre site off Junction 18 of the M1 motorway is a hub for road, rail and service infrastructure, some 2.3m sq.ft. of distribution and manufacturing floorspace had been constructed by 2004 and occupiers including Tesco?s, Tibbett & Britten plc, Ingram Micro, Royal Mail, the W.H. Malcolm Group, Eddie Stobart Ltd, Wincanton and Exel, have been attracted to this logistics location.
    DIRFT079-20-02-2007 .jpg
  • Detail of the Siemens Integrated Mail Processor (SIMP) operated by the Royal Mail at their Nine Elms sorting office Vauxhall, London. Developed in the mid-1990s it is the backbone of Royal Mail's system and Nine Elms is the biggest and most modern sorting office in Britain, employing 1,000 people and handling all post coming from/to south London: 1.1 million first-class items a day, 750,000 second class. Royal Mail handles some 82 million posted items a day. They have a statutory duty to provide a delivery service to 27 million addresses in the UK for letters and for parcels weighing up to 20kg. Six days a week they deliver daily to all addresses in the UK and provides a collection service from 115,000 Post Boxes, 16,000 Post Offices, businesses and organizations throughout the UK and distributed through 72 mail centres and 100 distribution centres.
    nine_elms_35.jpg
  • Letters about to be sorted by the Royal Mail operated Siemens Integrated Mail Processor operated at Nine Elms sorting office
    nine_elms_66.jpg
  • Name badges await owners at a corporate rally day, held for 3,000 UK staff at Excel, Docklands.
    Ernst+Young_Academy96-21-09-2007.jpg
  • Squiggles and unreadable notes written on a whiteboard at an auditing companys's London headquarters
    ernst+young382-09-08-2007.jpg
  • Role-play and positive thinking at a counselling workshop held for company staff in Borough, Southwark.
    ernst+young_counsillors15-18-09-2007.jpg
  • Employees of an auditing stride along high on top floor walkways at the company's London headquarters.
    ernst+young201-09-08-2007.jpg
  • Yellow sunflowers brighten up drab offices of an auditing company at their London headquarters
    ernst+young133-09-08-2007.jpg
  • A casually-dressed accountant works in a cluttered office cubicle in an auditing company's London headquarters.
    ernst+young243-09-08-2007.jpg
  • Large arrows coloured red, green and yellow point north, west and east - or up, right and left - in three directions, to offer directions to seminars for accountants during their annual Academy Day held for 3,000 of company London employees at Excel in London's Docklands, England. The people are either confidently pacing forward, standing still to seek guidance or simply spontaneously emerging from the shadows to a brighter future, a moment when freedom of choice is offered and the road ahead dictates their fate. It is a scene of corporate theatre and each employee will attend this fair where motivational pep-talks from executives, outside speakers and gurus will talk to large groups of personnel so their presence on this day away from the office is vital for the year's business ahead.
    Ernst+Young_Academy123-21-09-2007 co...jpg
  • Employees listen to an executive at their corporate rally day, held for 3,000 UK staff at Excel
    Ernst+Young_Academy48-21-09-2007.jpg
  • As evening light fades, bright light from the electricity-hungry Canary Wharf docklands development is supplied by the voltage from electricity cables and supporting struts at an east London sub-station, England. A network of 110 miles of cables have stretched across 542 'L6' pylons across England's Kent countryside, from the coal-fired power station at Dungeness to this location, carrying 40,000 Volts along this network of aluminium cables to power some of London's high supply demands. Insatiable appetites for energy means electricity is now an expensive commodity after climbing oil prices doubled electricity utility bills for some domestic users.
    electricity278-22-01-2008 .jpg
  • Local and nationwide electricity power lines merging with golden reed grasses on Botany Marshes, Swanscombe, Kent.
    electricity414-11-02-2008 .jpg
  • Camouflaged birdspotters peer through binoculars for wildlife at the RSPB's bird and wildlife reserve at Rainham Marshes, Essex
    electricity363-03-02-2008 .jpg
  • Hidden in a wooden hut, a group of bird-spotting ornithologists peer through binoculars at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) rreserve at Rainham Marshes, Essex England. Watching dozens of wintering birds, the group are intensely looking through their optical equipment in anticipation of seeing rare breeds at this Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a wetland alongside the River Thames, 20 miles from Central London. A narrow slit is open to keep them hidden from sight so leaning on elbows and with a guide sheet in front to identify particular species, they concentrate on their hobby. The RSPB has 200 nature reserves covering almost 130,000 hectares, home to 80% of Britain's rarest or most threatened bird species. Its role is to speak out for birds and wildlife, tackling the problems that threaten the environment.
    electricity385-03-02-2008 .jpg
  • The entrance to the RSPB's bird and wildlife reserve at Rainham Marshes, Essex.
    electricity375-03-02-2008 .jpg
  • The steel girders of an electricity pylon stands close between housing on an estate in Beckton, East London.
    electricity248-22-01-2008 .jpg
  • MDF board obscuring a blackboard advertising enterntainment in a closed pub on wasteland in  Canning Town, Newham..
    electricity226-20-01-2008 .jpg
  • Lady visitor to London's Theatreland gets directions from a passer-by beneath a Freddy Mercury  outside the Dominion Theatre
    electricity092-12-01-2008 .jpg
  • A passer-by stands outside a Chinese Restaurant offering Dim Sum in Chinatown, home to London's ethnic Chinese community.
    electricity120-17-01-2008 .jpg
  • An electricity pylon stands amongst bare trees on a gloomy winter day in woodland near Wrington, North Somerset England.
    electricity057-28-12-2007 .jpg
  • Dropped during construction of electricity pylons, a bolt and its nut lies on a forest floor, Clowes Wood, Chestfield, Kent
    electricity302-25-01-2008 .jpg
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