Hard Hard Work in Bucharest at the Turn of the C20
Young Street Busker
With the social reform movements in Europe in the C19, photographers felt encouraged to record the plight of working men and women of the time - here in Bucharest round the turn of the twentieth century.
Though the names of some of these professions may have a strange romantic resonance in popular culture today, everyone knows the reality would have been very different.
The obvious pathos in the image of the street musician encouraged me to place it first.
The second shows women gathering each day at some predetermined spot in the hope of being offered temporary work as maids.
Maids for Rent
Counter to expectation, the Library of Congress informs that chimney sweeping ...
... has been a steady profession right up to today.
A post on working class professions in the street in Romania would hardly be complete without an image of a fortune teller.
Physically demanding itinerant jobs included tinkering ...
... wood cutting ...
Wood Cutters
... and iron working ...
Iron Worker
Though life would hardly have been much easier for organ grinders ...
Organ Grinders
To finish, an image ...
... of 'the oldest profession in the world'.
A post dedicated to those who usually slip through the cracks in the system.
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