Olof Jarlbro's book, Stonefactory, shows the lives of Nepalese workers in a pair of stone mills outside of Kathmandu where bare hands and strong backs are the tools. Jarlbro's black and white images highlight hardworking people going through their lives with dignity. The photographs show no escape from the work, piles of stones of various size fill the background and edges of the frames in nearly every image.

Jarlbro reveals a hidden Nepal. His respect for his subjects is evident - a number of the images are portraits in nature. In one, (p. 55) a young girl sits on a pile of rocks with what looks like a young boy behind her. A tired look of resignation is on her dusty face. In the background is another pile of stones. To the right of the frame is a basket she has been carrying stones in it. Her life is spent in dust and it is all she knows. Jarlbro notes this in the brief introduction. The workers live on the grounds of the stone mills, many contract debilitating asthma and children start working as soon as they can carry stones. It is not an easy life.



In many images workers are shown unloading large rocks from the backs of dump trucks in sandaled feet without gloves on their hands (p. 14). They live next to the rock piles at which they work. A dramatic image of laundry drying on a line, not a stone's throw from two large piles of crushed rock, shows there is no escape from the dust (p. 31). Most of Jarlbro's images are visually layered from front to back creating densely packed scenes. His work echos the early work of Paolo Pellegrin and Alex Majoli. Jarlbro, an American educated Swede, brings a contemporary voice to this project. The design of the book works well for the flow of the images. Each photograph is about three quarters of a double page spread in size and thought was given to where the gutter falls so as not to hurt the images compositionally.


Unfortunately the printing is a bit uneven with some images going a bit dark. Grey tones are present, but some are lacking a highlight. Printing quality aside, it is a strong series of images examining the life of a people who appear to live in a different time. Jarlbro photographed these workers off and on over a six year period. He does turn these workers into heros. The photographic power of description tells a direct story in a way that is both contemporary and timeless. It is a story told out of respect. —Tom Leininger