All images by Sandwal Deen. Used with permission.
I’m a sucker for a photography project I seldom see — one that tackles a subject some might consider mundane, but does so from a perspective that makes it utterly fixating. Sanwal Deen, a Pakistani photographer based in Seattle, WA, turned his lens to the subject of work. More accurately: Handwork.
I can recall a conversation I once had with the mother of one of my closest friends. My friend, a bricklayer, bore the scars of a young man who spent hours a day doing heavy lifting with his tools. During my conversation with his mother, she took my hands in hers, looked them over and said: “They’re not built for hard work, son…”
From a building site perspective, she wasn’t wrong, I wouldn’t last an hour. Ironically though, I would go on to build a career as a writer, one equally dependent on the function of my hands.
I was reminded of this interaction when I saw Deen’s series. It made me think about how our hands can say a lot about us, especially in the world of work. This also reflects in his images. While the working environment gives the game away, if you look solely at the hands, you can begin to imagine what type of work they may do.
What I love about this series is how it triggers deeper thought. Beyond the professions, I find myself asking questions about the subject’s life: are they happy? Has life been a breeze or a challenge? The hallmark of a strong photography project is one that makes the viewer care about the subject they’re looking at — and that’s exactly what Handwork does.
I caught up with Deen to learn more about this series and the stories behind it.
Them Frames: Hey Sanwal! Where did the inspiration come from to start your Handwork project?
Sanwal Deen: Hey Dan! I had just finished my degree in design and was desperately looking for jobs. It was one of the most stressful periods of my life, because being an international student in the United States, I had to get a job before my visa ran out.
Photography has always been a way for me to cope with stress, and feelings of anxiety and despair.
In order to find my way, I decided to turn my lens to what other people do for work. The more people I met, and the more pictures I took, the more fascinated I became by how much people use their hands to make a living. And so I shifted my focus specifically to photographing from the perspective of the person working.
Them Frames: How did you gain access to your subjects? What was your pitch like to get them interested in the work?
Sanwal Deen: I firmly believe that humans, especially one on one, are full of kindness and love. Being an immigrant, I didn’t really know a lot of people; so I just simply approached people I thought were interesting and asked if I could photograph them. I explained my entire process, and what photographing them would entail, set up a time to meet and showed up.
Them Frames: What observations did you make about your subjects, especially in the contrasting fields of work they’re in?
Sanwal Deen: All people are alike; they are unique in their own way. For example, I photographed a butcher in Pakistan, and a butcher in Columbus OH. The environment looked different, but what they were doing was exactly the same. And that wasn’t much different from an engineer working on computer circuits at a silicon manufacturing facility. Yet, the skills they learnt, the way their fingers moved, it was all so unique to who they were as people.
But I learnt equally from who I did not photograph. I was very selective in photographing people who were a bit unusual because their visual setting was more interesting. Not everyone is a taxidermist, for example.
Having recognized that, I was struck by how most people spend eight or more hours of their day (1/3 of their lives) working on their computer. That depressed me, and made me realize it’s not a life I want for myself.
On the other end of the spectrum, I was deeply moved by some of the stories I heard. For example, the cobbler I photographed had his store in Ohio since the 60s. He was one of the first black business owners in that region, and had to overcome a lot of struggles to be successful. Despite it all, he succeeded, and inspired.
Them Frames: What was the creative reasoning behind doing a birdseye view of the people at work?
Sanwal Deen: At the time, I was reading a lot about photography and had learnt about the philosophy of Bernd and Hilla Becher, whose work really emphasized functional similarities. I was also discovering works by Andreas Gursky, and Gregory Crewdson, and was awed by how much detail there was in their pictures.
I decided on a birds-eye view because, firstly, because I wanted to show the picture from the perspective of the people working and, secondly, I wanted to be able to show the small details that one would otherwise miss, something the flattened perspective of the birds-eye view really helped achieve.
There are two more parts to the series I never shared with anyone: I made recordings of the people I photographed where they talk about their work and what led them to their chosen profession. I also photographed objects they used the most (for example, the cloth the etching artist used, or the needle the cobbler stitched the shoes with).
I decided not to include them in the end because as interesting as they were as individual photographs they really disrupted the flow of seeing the images together.
Them Frames: What message do you hope it sends to the people who view the project?
Sanwal Deen: I hope it inspires people, the same way that the people I photographed inspired me.
Them Frames: How do you feel about the final outcome of the project?
Sanwal Deen: I am not sure. I think this series, because of its consistency from frame to frame, was made by the person inside of me who is a designer. As an artist, I struggle with that a little bit. I want more chaos. But in the end, I know that introducing that chaos would detract from the goal of the series, so I have to kill my babies.
That said, I am working on a new series that employs a similar execution—every image is basically of the same object, but the environment is different – and for some reason it bothers me less in that series.
Them Frames: If you had to pair a song or album to this specific series, what would it be and why?
Sanwal Deen: Dam Mast Qalandar by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brooks. I think if most people read the lyrics to the song, it wouldn’t make sense and most people would wrongly think it’s a religious song. However, it’s really about a song about Love and rebellion. It’s about being true to yourself, and following your own beat, no matter what the cost.
Them Frames: Finally, please finish this sentence: I need photography in my life because…
Sanwal Deen: It takes me places and makes me feel alive.
You can see more work by Sanwal Deen by visiting his website and his Instagram.
More reading: How Gonzo Culture Shaped Robbie McIntosh’s Photography Style
