Justin Jin

Garment factory in Zhongshan City, China

As a child Justin Jin (b.1974 in Hong Kong) yearned to see the world. He left for boarding school in England and went on to study philosophy and political science at Cambridge. Reuters hired Justin  as a correspondent in Beijing, giving him an entry into journalism. While working as a reporter, he became fascinated by photography and taught himself, soon after leaving the wire service to produce in-depth photo reportage. In 2002  Justin was selected for the World Press Photo Master Class. Some of his stories are self-initiated, others are commissioned. Having spent the previous seven years in Amsterdam, in 2006 Justin moved to Moscow.

About the Photograph:

“Workers take a dawn break after scrubbing jeans all night using a sanding machine in Mr Huang’s factory in Zhongshan city, China. The blue dust from the jeans is a heavy irritant to the lungs. China, the “factory of the world”, is also the major producer of blue jeans. To meet production demand, thousands of workers sweat through the night scrubbing, spraying and tearing trousers to create their rugged look. At dawn, workers bundle the garment off to another factory for packaging and shipping around the world. The workers are among the 200 million migrant laborers criss-crossing China looking for a better life, at the same time building their country into a mighty industrial power.”

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