Ragged Victorians – The Great Unwashed

The ‘Ragged Victorians – The Great Unwashed’ are an award winning living history group, re-enacting the lower classes of Victorian England, c1851.

Blaenavon Ironworks Museum held this event over the May bank holiday, and safe to say it was well received – lots of photographers doing their best to capture the characters portrayed as 1850’s middle and lower class people from London.

The re-enactors carry on through the day, staying in character, speaking as best they can in the language and style that would have been custom back in the Victorian era.

Professional and approachable, often stopping and speaking to the public, introducing themselves as the characters and describing who they were and what their life would have been like. Characters were happy to pose for photos, though I chose to take the candid approach to catch a more natural image.

A real pleasure to have witnessed and had the opportunity to photograph some of the many characters on the day. All photos were taken using a Fuji X-H1 and either 16-55 f2.8 or 50-140 f2.8 lens.