Guardians of planet

How do you shift the lens through which we view and depict people working in the supply chain? To bring regen cotton into the mainstream, it’s important to also change how we talk about them and depict them in our communications. All too often, people working in the vast fashion supply chain are viewed through a sombre or nostalgic, sepia-toned lens, separate from how people at the front of the supply chain — models, celebrities, designers — are viewed. These photos seldom bring out their personalities or relationships with each other. We decided to change this.

At the end of last year, we headed to India to shoot a series focused on the bonds between groups of farmers we work closely with in our programme and bring out their unique personalities. We aimed to highlight emotions and values of optimism, strength, confidence and individuality. This is part of an ongoing attempt of ours to infuse the freshness that you would expect from a fashion campaign, into our representation of farmers who do equally cool work in not just growing our clothes, but also in managing humanity’s relationship with the land. All of it, directed and produced by the Materra team.

How do you shift the lens through which we view and depict people working in the supply chain? To bring regen cotton into the mainstream, it’s important to also change how we talk about them and depict them in our communications.

All too often, people working in the vast fashion supply chain are viewed through a sombre or nostalgic, sepia-toned lens, separate from how people at the front of the supply chain — models, celebrities, designers — are viewed. These photos seldom bring out their personalities or relationships with each other. We decided to change this.

At the end of last year, we headed to India to shoot a series focused on the bonds between groups of farmers we work closely with in our programme and bring out their unique personalities. We aimed to highlight emotions and values of optimism, strength, confidence and individuality.

This is part of an ongoing attempt of ours to infuse the freshness that you would expect from a fashion campaign, into our representation of farmers who do equally cool work in not just growing our clothes, but also in managing humanity’s relationship with the land. All of it, directed and produced by the Materra team.

Power and poise

rekhaba-manguben-manjiben

Female labour is often invisible and unpaid. This extends to farming as well — while more than three-quarters of rural women work in farming, less than fifteen percent of them own land. It’s easier to picture a man rather than a woman when thinking of a farmer. When thinking about capturing these incredible women, part of our regenerative program, we took inspiration from the statues of Greek gods and Indian emperors alike often found on marble and bronze plinths. What if they were instead female farmers on bales of cotton, each weighing hundreds of pounds, that they helped grow, the products of their own hard work? Presenting the Guardians of Planet Earth, a powerful image for the world to see, of women breaking boundaries and stereotypes.

Rekhaba stands tall on the cotton bales. When she's not growing regenerative cotton, she's a macrame artist and Youtuber.

Manjiben and Manguben, two of a growing cohort of female farmers that joined Materra's regenerative program, hold spools of yarn, while standing fearlessly on the bales.

Friendships In Farming

dASHARAThBHAI-BHIKHaBHAI-rameshbhai-shaileshbhai

Friendships are a beautiful thing and they run just as deep in the fields. Farmers learn from each other's learning and experiences, sharing observations and grievances alike, forming close bonds in their tight-knit community. We brought a group of farmers into the fields just as the sun was setting, intent on capturing the essence of this bond as intimately as we could. Then in the night, we captured them in pitch-black fields, having some fun in the process.

On the left, Bhikhabhai and Rameshbhai catch the last rays of the setting sun. Below Rameshbhai, Dasharathbhai and Bhikhabhai stand confident in the field.

The Maker

RAMANJI-AMARATJI-GOVINDJI-
SEDHAJI-AMAJI

How often do farmers get to see what happens to their cotton, they grow with so much hard work? How often are they photographed outside of their fields and immediate neighbourhoods? We took a group of farmers to the gin, just one stop in the long path to making the final piece of clothing. Against the backdrops of neatly pressed, ginned cotton bales, in dark, cavernous rooms lit with natural sunlight streaming in from skylits, and the whirr of the sorting machines, they stood proudly with their work, each helping to make the fashion the world adorns.

Amaji, always one of the most enthusiastic Materra farmers, strikes a pose against bales of regenerative cotton at the gin.