It is almost midnight. A small, unstaffed but well lit railway station in East London. Not a living soul on the platforms, CCTV surveillance cameras on protected poles monitoring them, and two contractor workers standing on scaffolds near the entrance, decorating the ceiling over their heads. A small A4 notice attached to a pressed wood construction board signals: Caution — MEN AT WORK. One of the workers explains: we make much faster progress with our job at night, during the day lots of visitors walk in or out of the station. He avoids answering questions about nocturnal work conditions and shift pay, and whether he himself decides to do the night-shifts or it is his company boss that tells him. A third worker, wearing a fluorescent coat and white helmet walks into the station wordlessly, like a ghost, pushing a wheelbarrow and ignoring his co-worker’s conversation.
Ⓒ Ger Duijzings. Location & date: Bethnal Green, East London, Thursday 26 January 2012 (11pm). Photograph: Ger Duijzings.
