Fashion Victims - Other people´s clothes

Clothes make the man. But men and women who make the clothes for other people are often left behind. While India’s growing middle class is following trends, the greedy tiger is chewing its working class for the well being of the economic prosperity. For a long time Ahmedabad was known as the Manchester of the orient and still today the steam engines are running at the textile factories in the city at the Sabarmati River. The factories spit out fabrics which will be offered later on the world markets. Mahatma Gandhi once founded his ashram nearby. He sat at his spinning wheel and spread his ideas of a nation of equality, tolerance and non-violence. But today, Indian reality looks very different. Stories can be told about child slaves at cotton plantations in rural Gujarat, as well as stories about people who wash dirty clothes for the wealthy. Those stories are far away from fair-trade or from the Bollywood´s glamourous image. A lot of workers drudge double shifts to enhance their salaries. Poverty makes them work under unacceptable conditions. A lot of them hardly see the sunlight. Long-term health damage caused by negligent handling of chemicals and colours or the dust that impairs from the work with cotton limit the lifespan of a lot of workers. Their lifespan lies below the Indian average already. But India is changing. The Indians say that India is developing. Slowly but surely. As long as corruption, bribery and greedi- ness steer this development only little of the economic prosperity will get where it is needed most. It is unclear whom to blame, but surely we have to take part of the blame ourselves as it´s our ‚tight is right’ mentality that keeps the workers wages low.

Born in Germany in 1982, I started my professional carrer as a video editor in the age of 21 after a time of extensive journeys. In 2007, I dared to take a step backwards from motion pictures to still images and started to study at the university of applied sciences in Hanover, Germany. Following the tradition of humanistic photojournalism, I feel strongly committed to Concerned photography and express my respect and empathy through this powerful medium. As good images take time and understanding I like to work intensively on deeper-perspective projects to raise awareness and responsibility on specific social grievances.