Scorching flames, rising black smoke, beads of sweat streaming down sooty faces, men's angry voices echoing through the air, and the smell of fuel oil. Since my first visit to Bangladesh in 2012, I have continued to visit and document the laborers who make the screws used to build ships. Their studio is small, dark, and cavernous. Adults and children work together to produce cold hard metal by pouring molten red magma-like liquid into the pitch-black earth, which has been coated with iron sand. It was like a world of creation myths. Stillness and motion, softness and hardness, light and shadow, regeneration and destruction. The screw is produced with the tremendous labor of the workers as its fuel. Again and again, I was absorbed by the tremendous energy swirling in this cramped studio and ravenously watched them. (Akihito Yoshida)
The book also includes a short story “The Screw" written by novelist Ishii Shinji for this book. It was designed by Tamon Yahagi, who has previously worked on Yoshida's photo books. The cover photo was printed via risograph. Each book title was hand-stamped and the author's name was signed by Yoshida himself.
The screws depicted in this book are all produced by hand, each slightly varying in shape and size.
