In September 2019 I was commissioned by Singapore based clothing label Zilingo to capture stills across a number of the most sustainable factories that they work with in Asia.
Zilingo were preparing to push into the European market and they were planning to publish a book focussing on their sustainability efforts to take with them to meetings in Europe the following month.
In the beginning the plan was as follows
6 factories to be shot, across 3 cities in 3 countries (India, Bangladesh and either China, Indonesia or Vietnam)
Delivery of 30 images per factory
Documentary style
One day per factory and a travel day between each factory shoot when necessary
Due to a tight deadline the selects to be uploaded as I travelled so that the client could select those required for retouching and start working on the book layout.
Zilingo were still trying to lock down and get permission from many of the factories that they hoped to visit on the trip so I came up with an initial quotation for the job and sent it off and a few days later I got the news that it was given the green light. As the cities were not yet finalised we agreed on a day rate, a travel day rate, media usage and post production fees and they arranged my Indian and Bangladesh visa’s.
The Indian business visa took a few days longer than expected but I had been packed and ready to go for 48 hours at this stage so they were able to put me on the next available flight and I flew out that afternoon to Vadodara, India via Bangkok and Mumbai.
On arrival in Vadodara early the following morning it was another 4 hours by car to the first factory in Banswara.
On arrival I met with Ashley from Zilingo and whilst we had planned it to be just a scouting day she suggested that I bring my camera as the factory was huge and we agreed to shoot it over one and half days.
It was a very dark factory so I worked mainly with the fluorescent light sources throughout the factory. I loved the colours of the fabric and of many of the factory workers outfits and below are some of my favourite images from our time there.
The next stop was Dhaka, Bangladesh and it was another 4 hours back to the airport for an early morning flight to Dhaka via New Delhi.
The next morning we were met by Kawsar from Zilingo’s Dhaka office who would be joining us on our factory visits and we headed out through the hectic Dhaka traffic to our first factory which was about 3 hours out of the city.
It was a small factory so on arrival we did a tour of the facility so as to work out how to most effectively spend our time. I was happy to find a lot of large windows that I could use as light sources, they had some great fabric swatches that we were able to get some great shots of and some of the machinery was very photogenic.
The following day we headed to another factory outside of the city which was interesting as they collect all their raw materials from cutting waste (known as Jooth) from different garment factories around Bangladesh and convert it into new yarn. The process used no water, dyes or chemicals and it’s mechanically recycled into an entirely sustainable, world-class textile.
After completing the shoot I was absolutely covered in Jooth so the factory manager sprayed me down with compressed air to clean me up before we sat down to a late lunch and below is a video that Ashley took.
Next we travelled to Tiruppur in South India and the factory that we visited was not only one of the most colorful but it was also one of the most sustainable as here they had an onsite water purification system and a their own wind farm.
Our final stop in India was to New Delhi where we visited the smallest factory of the trip. This factory had implemented a sewing center for for at risk women from the slums of New Delhi so as to empower these women and it was also recognized for its range of sustainable textiles.
We were getting towards the end of the trip and by this time our final destination had been confirmed as Hanoi but I had to stop in Ho Chi Minh City for a few days for another shoot and Ashley headed directly to Hanoi. All the travel was catching up to us at this point though and we both came down with illness on the way back to Vietnam.
By the time I arrived in Hanoi I had started to feel well again but Ashley was bed ridden so I photographed the final factory without her. The factory had interesting lighting and they used a drying process that I’d never seen before to dry huge rolls of fabric after it has been washed and this made for some great images. I also loved photographing the spider like spinning machines.
Zilingo was extremely happy with the images and I’ll finish off with some tearsheets from their marketing efforts which have been a huge success.
