Khāk-i Kārkhānah: Persiska (Farsi) 1402

The soil of the factory is a book of documentary and oral history. Shiva Khademi, the photographer and author of this book, with an emotional mood and in search of his roots, begins photographing and talking with the elderly colleagues of his grandmother Azizjun, who was a worker at the Behshahr tile factory in the 1320s. But he soon realizes that these apparently simple conversations are more than reminiscences of people who still stubbornly love their old workplace. Over time, from the heart of these work memories, a whole and a space are formed and themes emerge that are not only used in the analysis and evaluation of the history and the path of business in Iran, but also an image of the close connection of the work space, the identity of the city and the social relations of the city's people. They put it before our eyes. The soil of the factory is the story of an industry and the narrative of the world of work, but from the words of narrators who have always been on the sidelines and their stories are less considered in the history of business in Iran. It is a look from inside and from the perspective of small and quiet human resources and not from the official and high ranks. Recording the experiences of the most unheard of work chain links in Iran. The narrative of native or immigrant workers whose lives were once set by the whistle of the Behshahr Chit factory. Ekabar's cook and teacher and women weavers and spinners who have woven the strength of their knees and hands into the fabric and the men who have kept the machines running day and night; People who are rarely seen in the history of Iran's work. Shiva Khademi's pleasant prose and colorful photographs have created a memorable cinematic image by representing the contrast between the green geography of Behshahr and the industrial structure of the chit factory, and the refreshing fusion of the northern natural environment with metal, gears and spindles. The delicate and finely woven human experience of the soil of the factory gives the smell of wild flowers and mosses of Mazandaran. This consistency of the text with the climate that it narrates has made the result of Shiva Khademi's five-year research readable and captivating, and his photos, along with such a text, have added to the richness of this social documentation.