Sept. 12, in Puget Sound’s Collins Memorial Library, Associate Anthropology Professor Andrew Gardner and his wife, photographer Kristin Giordano, gave a presentation titled “Skyscrapers and Shadows: Labor and Migration in Doha, Qatar.”
In the presentation the couple told a story of economic disparities in the Qatar capital of Doha through photographs—specifically photographs of migrant laborers, many of which hold up signs proclaiming their monthly salaries.
The first worker stoically held a sign with the salary “$164.” Few others went over that number.
Giordano began by showing two pictures: the one on the right depicting the well-known affluent part of Doha where expatriates usually live, the one on the left showing a poorer part of the city known as Al Khor.
“It’s a really segregated society,” Giordano said of the two sides of Doha.
She explained that through this project, she and her husband wanted to “look at the economic disparities going on in the country,” since there is so little actually known about the poorer parts of Qatar.
“We wanted to give [people] an opportunity to see the other side of Doha,” Gardner added.
To do this, Giordano took pictures of about 50 male laborers who were sent to Doha to work. The pictures each showed only one man, rather than a group, against a neutral background.
“What I really wanted to do with these photographs,” Giordano said, “was to highlight the individual.”
In Doha, the laborers work in Qatar’s well-known oil industry, from which it earns most of its wealth.
However, these workers are placed far from the wealth of the nation, earning low wages and working long hours far from their homes.
After Giordano showed her photography, Gardner pointed out that the exploitation of these workers rests “on a foundation of the dehumanization of this population.”
Giordano mentioned how they were “encountered as a huge crowd” and labeled as one big force of “labor,” rather than being viewed as individuals.
The photos of the individual men show this clearly, and help to humanize these workers and bring to light the economic disparities and migrant worker exploitation occurring in this part of Qatar.
Giordano’s photos can be found at the main floor of Collins Memorial Library until Sept. 30.
