Dayshift, Reimagining Industrial Migratory

About this work

Dayshift was the first image made in The Exiles series, created in 2019.

We see the Black Country from above — a roofscape of Victorian terraces, their chimney pots silhouetted against a sky heavy with industrial haze. Factory stacks rise behind the houses. Warm amber light fills the windows, hinting at the domestic lives inside, while in the yards below, small figures gather in the darkness.

The image is composed from over 800 individual source files, applying filmic principles of set-building, costume, and lighting to create a single photograph that functions as a silent, operatic film.

Composition

The elevated viewpoint places the viewer above the scene, looking down across the rooftops as if surveying a world in miniature. The contrast between the warm interior light and the cold industrial skyline holds the tension of the work — domestic life pressed against the machinery of labour.

Awards

Dayshift was entered into the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Photography Prize Exhibition, where Billy Dosanjh was awarded First Prize.

Exhibition history

Shown as part of [Traveller, Your Footprints] at New Art Exchange, Nottingham (September 2022 – January 2023) and The Exiles at The New Art Gallery Walsall (November 2022 – February 2023).