center
September 2007
The producers
The worker, especially the construction worker, is one of the biggest myths of the 20th century. He is either on the lowest level of exploitation or the hero building the glass towers in which the „capital“ grows. Often the picture of the worker was characterized and often instrumentalized for ideological and political reasons. Today, this symbolic picture of the labourer has disappeared from the public visual vocabulary, displaced by pictures of working conditions brought about by globalization.
Susanne Jakszus doesn’t portray the worker as a symbol nor as a warrior but rather as someone who opens their door to allow a view into his working world. The rough visual language catapults one immediately into the male dominated construction world. And what do we get?
The picture of the large construction site comes into our mind – these anonymous and threatening symbols of cement, cranes, noise and dirt is transforming daily. But suddenly this picture is destroyed because you get this feeling of privacy and initmacy. The photographer embraces the life of the workers on a regular basis and, therefore, we can understand their livelihood, which is so much a part of their lives, for several months.
However, it is not the rough working atmosphere that affects us….. it is more the mixture of privacy and the working atmosphere – where the work stops and the leisure begins is undeterminable.
It almost seems like this construction site is „homelike“ for the workers. Additionally, you can feel their pride. For a short time in their lives they inhabit the construction site. A man opens his beer and jokes around. In their trailers are TVs and fridges with snacks. Almost a contradictory picture because the environment is also a hostile one. Large gloves, thick leather boots and helmets show this.