Cofra workers, 2011
At the initiative of the company “Cofrablack”, a petrochemical plant producing carbon black, I discovered the world of this industry. Dressed in heavy blue overalls, workers produce carbon black under a strong sun and in the heat of the reactors. This dust with fine particles escapes in the transparency of the air, and penetrate everywhere, through the clothes, in all the folds, by all the pores, blackening their face until the interior of the eyelids. They immediately remind me of the images of coal miners coming up from the gallery.
At the end of the day, which is not necessarily the evening because the factory operates continuously in three shifts, as a team arrives, the one leaving heads for the changing rooms. It is a joyful universe where everyone, stripped of their work clothes, takes off under the shower this second skin, result of the day’s activity: the carbon black. In a few minutes, the tiredness of the working day seems to be erased, their features soften, their eyes widen, they appear naked as they are.
I decide to make three portraits, two in front of the factory at the beginning and at the end of the shift and the third in the locker room after the shower. Eight triptychs are presented, as a symbol for these workers whose work schedule is organized in “three-eight”.
Series realized in 2011 in Bec d’Ambès, Gironde, France
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