Work is the third of three prints accepted into MiniPrint Cymru | Wales, showing at Mission Gallery, Swansea (November 2025–January 2026) and Mostyn, Llandudno (March–April 2026). Working within the same intimate 100mm x 100mm format, this piece descends deep underground into the experience of labour itself.

Together, these three prints (Home, Commute and Work) tell a story of working life during the Industrial Revolution, holding up a mirror to our everyday lives now and revealing how the fundamental rhythms of life haven’t really changed.

The Descent

This piece takes the viewer underground, depicting three miners deep in the darkness of the earth. For generations, men and boys in South Wales descended into the mines each day, facing long hours, hard graft, and the ever-present threat of disaster.

The darkness here is not metaphorical. It’s the pressing, absolute darkness of being hundreds of metres below the surface, where daylight becomes a memory. It’s the weight of stone above, the cold seeping into bones, the taste of dust in the air. The miners in this print exist in a space fundamentally removed from the natural world, separated from seasons and sunlight.

Yet they were not removed from their humanity. These men worked alongside one another, developed rituals and routines, found moments of camaraderie in the darkness. They were skilled workers, not mere cogs in a machine, though the industrial system often treated them as such.

Then and Now

While our workplaces may look different now, the experience of stepping into the working day with its challenges and its demands is something that still connects us. We may not descend into mines, but many of us descend into our own versions of darkness, offices without windows, basement studios, the metaphorical depths of demanding jobs that consume our energy and attention.

The fundamental experience remains unchanged: the commitment to show up, to do hard work, to persevere despite difficulty. Whether facing geological darkness or the psychological demands of modern labour, we share something with those miners. We know what it means to enter a working space and meet its call.

The Print

The 100mm x 100mm format demanded absolute focus. I concentrated on capturing the density of underground labour, the proximity of bodies in confined space, the texture of stone and earth, the quality of light that isn’t quite light at all.

The prints in this series work individually, capturing distinct moments of departure, arrival, or transition. Viewed together in sequence: Home, Commute, Work, they form a continuous narrative about how we structure our days and our lives around work.

Work is part of MiniPrint Cymru | Wales, touring Mission Gallery, Swansea and Mostyn, Llandudno through 2026.

Hywl fawr,

Daniel