Field Archive

贵州工人

Ma Shi Fu · Brush Trimmer at the Xuan Brush Factory

The hardest part is picking out these hairs. If you don't pick them out, the brush won't write. There are bald hairs, uneven ones—uneven ones without tips—every one of them has to be plucked out.

Cai Shi Fu · Kiln Fire Tender at the Decorative Brick Factory

"People my age—the next generation just can't do it. They don't fire kilns. Our generation is the last."

Zhu Shi Fu · Fire-Watcher at the Decorative Brick Factory

This earthen kiln—once they've loaded it and it's time to light the fire, I'm the one in charge. From lighting it to the final firing, I handle the whole thing myself. And after it's fired, the water dousing—I do that too.

Fang Shi Fu · Brick-Carving Worker at the Decorative Brick Factory

Anyone who does it can do it. But doing it well—that's actually not easy. The expressions on the figures, right. And flowers and things like that—flowers have their forms too, their expressions too.

Factory Director Wu · Xuan Brush Inheritor

I started out making brush shafts, and then eventually it was research—new material applications, new product design, market promotion, including the new things I make and getting them out to market. It goes both ways. Whatever the market needs, they bring it to me and I develop it for them.

Wang Shi Fu (plus two anonymous others) · Water-Basin Workers at the Xuan Brush Factory

In winter, when others were warming themselves by the fire, we were still working away in cold water. In summer, this part"—he gestured to his hands—"would rot.

Jing County Decorative Brick Inheritor

Maolin Decorative Brick Inheritor

Huizhou Ancient City

Zhaji Village, Jing County

Residents' daily work and leisure.

Residents' daily work and leisure.

Front facade of an ancestral hall, its gatehouse inlaid with decorative bricks.

Front facade of an ancestral hall, its gatehouse inlaid with decorative bricks.

Huangtian Village, Jing County

徽州古城

泾县黄田村

Zhaji Village, Jing County

Zha Ji

Maolin Town, Jing County

Zhaji Village, Jing County

Zhaji Village

The Rings of a Pair of Hands

The hands of Xuan Brush Worker A: white and waterlogged from the basin, finely cut by years of trimming, twenty-eight years layered one upon another.

Whom the Kiln Fire Does Not Light

Two veteran workers at the tile factory have given half their lives to the craft, yet their names appear nowhere in the records.

Kiln Shoot Gone Wrong, and the Adjustment

The inside of the kiln was too hot and the lens kept fogging. We switched to filming the processes outside the kiln and recording audio instead — and came away with better material.

First Formal Interview with a Xuan Brush Worker

A 40-minute anonymous interview. Only in the second half of the recording, once the worker had relaxed, did he begin to talk about his real income.