Tannery colours and the work behind them
Tannery vats attract the eye from above, yet colour is only one part of a working place. Read the scene through materials and labour, while respecting what a photograph cannot tell us about the people or their conditions.
More than a pattern
The photograph shows adjoining vats, roofs and passages between working areas in Fez. Seen from above, they may resemble geometric shapes. Treating them only as pattern, however, removes their most important context: production.
Begin with what is visible: differences of colour, the relationship of vats to buildings and the narrowness of some passages. The image alone cannot establish chemical recipes, workplace safety or workers’ circumstances. Those questions require evidence beyond the colour of the water.
Story sources: Bernard GagnonAn object and its making
The Moroccan craft guide places making within a network of cities and regions. For a piece of leather, textile or pottery, place can open a useful question; it is not an automatic certificate of quality.
This stop connects Fez with Safi. Here we see vats; there we will encounter vessels and kilns. Both ask us to give hands, time and materials some of the attention we give the finished object.
Story sources: ONMTStory sources
Sources reviewed:
- Moroccan craft guideONMT
- Leather tanning vats in FezBernard Gagnon
