Invisible Britain: Portraits of Hope and Resilience
edited by Paul Sng
Policy Press

IN HIS films, Paul Sng explores the lives of working class people who've been ignored, marginalised or demonised by mainstream media and who are protesting and challenging the status quo in some way.

Now, in his new book Invisible Britain, the documentary photographs, portraits and accompanying text tell the untold invisible stories of those targeted by austerity economics, of those left behind by cuts to public services and excluded from the dominant narratives in the press and broadcast media.

The subjects look out in a dignified way. They’re not case studies of despair to grit up a superficial TV drama, nor are they illustrations of some story about benefit scroungers. They're sensitive, revealing and empathic portraits — some inspiring, some heartbreaking — of ordinary people with a story to tell.

Their narratives are about their setbacks and suffering and the various ways they persist in fighting back. Not just through political campaigning but through voluntary care work with prostitutes, disabled people, ex-offenders, drug users and other poor, oppressed and exploited groups in modern capitalist society.

These are people who've all experienced suffering, exploitation and discrimination against themselves and those they care about. But their determination, resilience and sense of solidarity shine through both their portraits and their stories.

It's striking how much their experiences and values have made them politically aware. They are quite conscious of the punishment handed out to them by a rigged economic and political system and, like this newspaper, the value and power of the book lies in its creation of an alternative narrative that challenges all the stigmas and stereotypes that have been generated by the deindustrialisation, discrimination and class conflict of the last few decades of neoliberal capitalism.

It is a fine example of the art of photography being used not to fool us with glossy photoshopped adverts of skinny models and shiny cars but to tell the plain truth of people’s lives today and to stimulate our compassion, empathy and desire for radical change.

As Ken Loach says in the book, it is a vivid and truthful account of contemporary class conflict and struggle. But as well as its value as a document, it is also itself part of the cultural struggle — a protest and an inspiration for all to join and help achieve a better life for the poor, the marginalised and the oppressed — and of ourselves.

Invisible Britain: Portraits of Hope and Resilience, edited by Paul Sng and with a foreword by Michael Sheen, is published by Policy Press, price £20. Sng is touring the book with a series of Q&As and screenings of the film that helped inspire it, Sleaford Mods: Invisible Britain, until November 10. Details: invisiblebritain.com.

An extended version of this review and an interview with Paul Sng is available at Culture Matters, culturematters.org.uk.