Lucia Ganieva

Ganieva Lucia Ganieva graduated the Amsterdam fotoacademie cum laude in 2007. She lives and works in the Netherlands. Awards: Gold Award, PANL (NL); 1st + 2nd place, IPA Awards (USA); shortlist, Sony Awards and SCAN Latent Talent, Tarragona ( Spain); winner, Foto Triennale DK Award, Odense ( Denmark). Exhibitions: Amsterdam, Arles, New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Bucharest, Umea, Tarragona; in 2010: San Francisco (RayKo Gallery), Helsinki ( FinnishMuseum for Photography), Aarhus (Image Galleri), Darmstadt (DTDF), Amsterdam (Museum Hermitage).

Factory

Factory is a series of triptychs about textile factories in the town of Ivanovo, some 275 kilometres from Moscow. It’s also known as the “Town of Brides”, as many women work in these factories. Ivanovo used to be the centre of Russia’s textile industry. There were dozens of buildings where the women of Ivanovo produced the most beautiful fabrics, mostly cotton and linen. They took care of the whole process, from the start to the end product. Now, due to strong competition from countries like China — where labour costs are low — only a handful of factories are still going, and are mainly involved in bleaching and printing fabrics.
By combining images of factory interiors, the fabrics themselves and the women who produce them, I wanted to compose a portrait of the factory, saving these last remains of an industrial era that is about to disappear. The fabrics in the photographs are from different collections, old and new. The diversity of machinery in the factories, as well as the different kinds of women, contribute to the idea of contingency I wanted to add to the images.

Люция Ганиева. Из проекта Фабрика. 2008. Цифровая печать. 80×60 каждая часть триптиха. Courtesy автор / Lucia Ganieva. From the Factory project. 2008. Digital print. Each part 80×60 cm. Courtesy author