SEAWEED FARMERS IN ZANZIBAR
This series traces forms of labour, exchange, and environmental precarity along the tidal coastlines of Zanzibar. Moving between shoreline, sea, and horizon, the photographs follow women harvesting seaweed at low tide, where bodies, water, and cultivated marine landscapes become intertwined through repetitive physical work. The shallow coastal waters function simultaneously as workplace, ecosystem, and point of connection to global networks of production that extend far beyond the island itself. Throughout the series, labour appears through gesture rather than spectacle. Hands gather, pull, sort, and carry. Bodies bend toward the waterline as tides advance and recede. The direct contact between hands, water, and seaweed becomes a recurring visual motif. At times, the women appear dwarfed by vast expanses of sea, sandbars, and horizon, evoking both the isolation of the work and a sense of proximity to natural forces larger than themselves. The horizon remains constant while light, weather, and currents continually transform the surface of the landscape.
Several photographs evoke longer histories of women’s labour represented in art, from the agricultural workers of Millet and Van Gogh to environmental practices explored by artists such as Andy Goldsworthy. The minimalist visual elements of Zanzibar’s coastline—its shifting light, rippling currents, and expansive horizon line—suggest a tension between cyclical natural rhythms and the accelerating forces of globalization. Seaweed occupies a paradoxical position within the contemporary economy. Algae extracts are used in food production, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and emerging biofuel technologies, while ongoing research explores their potential role in carbon absorption and climate mitigation. Yet the benefits generated by these industries remain unevenly distributed. In Zanzibar, limited processing infrastructure and restricted access to export markets leave many farmers dependent upon intermediaries who control pricing and circulation.
The coastline becomes a site where ecological systems, international markets, and everyday acts of survival intersect. What appears local and immediate is inseparable from broader structures of exchange, revealing both the possibilities and vulnerabilities embedded within contemporary forms of environmental labour. This photographic series was first exhibited in Picturing Power & Potential, a juried exhibition presented by the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery in association with the International Museum of Women and was later expanded into a solo exhibition at Photo De Mer in Vannes, France.
