Clare Gallagher · The Second Shift

 
 
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The Second Shift is the term given to the hidden shift of housework and childcare primarily carried out by women on top of their paid employment. It is physical, mental and emotional labour which demands effort, skill and time but is unpaid, unaccounted for, unequally distributed and largely unrecognised. 

Hidden in plain sight and veiled by familiarity and insignificance, the second shift is largely absent from photographs of home and family. This work is an attempt to recognise the complexity and value of this invisible work; it is also a call for resistance to the systems which ignore it.


Clare Gallagher is a Northern Irish photographer, whose work focuses on the ordinary, everyday practices of home. A photography lecturer since 2003, Clare is course director for BA (Hons) Photography with Video at the Belfast School of Art, Ulster University.

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