Textile Exchange’s annual photography competition in collaboration with the world-renowned photography agency Magnum Photos invites emerging photographers to explore the visual stories behind the materials in clothing and textiles. This year, its third edition saw 356 photographers from 64 countries submit over 6,000 photographs exploring how they transform people, places, cultures, and nature.

Chosen by a panel of expert judges, the two winning projects look at the impact of climate change and globalization on traditional practices, both featuring plants that were once used to create textiles and are now extinct or endangered. Overall winner Alejandra Orosco shares the story of the women seeking to bring back natural indigo to the town of Chinchero, Peru, while runner-up Priyadarshini Ravichandran highlights the disappearance of Indigenous desi cotton varieties in the village of Wardha, India.

The two projects document the efforts of communities striving to revive their cultural heritage while adapting to evolving economic and environmental conditions. As both artisans and farmers navigate the pressures of globalization, their journeys reflect a commitment to preserving skills and knowledge.

Together, the photo stories provide a deeper understanding of the intersection between nature and culture that once defined localized textile production systems. They hint at the importance of reviving this connection to ensure a resilient future, and ultimately remind us that clothing and textiles cannot be seen in isolation, simply as products. Recognizing and valuing the geographies, histories, and communities behind textiles is essential for realizing their potential for change.

WINNER

Alejandra Orosco

Based in Cusco, Peru, Alejandra Orosco’s work explores the intersection of identity, colonization, and untold stories. Her photographs transcend language barriers, encouraging viewers to appreciate distant realities while finding common ground with their own.

Orosco co-directs Maleza, an arts center in the Sacred Valley, and has participated in the documentary photography program at the Centro de las Artes de San Agustín (CaSa) in Oaxaca, the SMArt residency by the Foundation for the Sustainable Development of Mountain Regions (FDDM) in Switzerland, and most recently, the photojournalism seminar at the VII Academy. She also received a grant from National Geographic to further develop her work.

Orosco’s winning project, Sueño en Azul (A Dream in Blue), visually explores the possible impact of climate change and colonization on Andean textile culture through the lens of the indigo blue plant.

Used in the traditional textiles of Chinchero, a pre-Inca town renowned for its rich textile heritage, indigo was present in archaeological finds in Peru dating back six thousand years. However, it has now vanished from the country, and the color once used by pre-Hispanic cultures is imported from the Global North by Indigenous communities seeking to continue their textile tradition.

As tourism transforms the local economy, women in artisan cooperatives must adapt to environmental and economic pressures to satisfy tourists seeking these crafts as souvenirs. They are now on a journey to sustainably revive indigo cultivation, aiming to grow the plant on their land once again. This story accompanies their journey of expectations, dreams, and the anxiety that maintaining a tradition implies, even when it is no longer part of one’s reality.

Explore THE SERIES

Sueño en Azul (A Dream in Blue)

RUNNER UP

Priyadarshini Ravichandran

Born in Tamil Nadu, India, Priyadarshini Ravichandran is a documentary photographer and artist whose work explores the themes that emerge from relationships that root, reveal, or unsettle her. Her storytelling focuses on women, their lives, and the land, guided by poetics and interconnectivity.

An alumna of the South Asia Incubator program at Photo Kathmandu, she has also participated in workshops at the Angkor Photo Festival in Cambodia and the International Center of Photography in New York. She received the Parasol Prize from the V&A Museum, and her work has been exhibited at the Sunaparanta Centre for the Arts in Goa and at Peckham 24 in London.

In her photography series “Wardha,” Ravichandran documents the village of the same name in the heart of India, which holds historical significance as Mahatma Gandhi’s adopted home. Here, cotton cultivation was once a political act, symbolizing the struggle for freedom from colonial rule. Gandhi envisioned a decentralized future, promoting hand-spun Indigenous desi cotton to uplift farmers and households while respecting the earth’s resources. However, today Wardha reflects the harsh realities of industrialization and corporate farming, with chemical- intensive cotton monoculture leading to health issues and escalating farmer debt. The decline in the cultivation of indigenous varieties of cotton in favor of genetically modified seeds, and the increasing costs associated with these inputs, have had devastating effects on the farming community. Through her lens, Ravichandran uncovers the remnants of Gandhi’s vision, exploring the enduring connection between the people and their land amid loss and sorrow.

Explore THe series

The Villlage of Wardha

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The post Connecting Textiles, Nature, and Culture with Magnum Photos for our 2024 Competition appeared first on Textile Exchange.

Known to the Ancient Greeks as the Maiandros (Μαίανδρος), Türkiye’s Büyük Menderes river winds its way over 584 kilometers from the Western Anatolia region to the sea on its Aegean coast. It has long been characterized by its leisurely oscillation, so much so that its name Menderes forms the root of the modern English verb “to meander.”

Today, the Büyük Menderes river basin houses a wealth of habitats and biodiversity hotspots. Its delta is an internationally important wetland, where the river meets the sea in an intricate marbling of land and water. Bafa Lake – a former gulf now separated from the sea by sediment – is a haven for visiting birdwatchers and local fishermen alike. Both are home to endangered species including the Dalmatian pelican and European eel.

But the river basin is known for more than just nature. Home to a thriving textile industry and over 42 mills, the land around its sweeping curves also represents the second-largest cotton-producing area in the country. Nested between the delta, Bafa Lake, and the Latmos mountains, the cotton fields of the Soke Plain alone support the livelihoods of approximately 30,000 people.

Often, the activities used for cotton cultivation are at odds with the local ecosystem. From blocking the Büyük Menderes’ natural flow to pool resources for flood irrigation, to polluting the lake with the runoff from synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, the impacts of industry and agriculture are reflected in its waters.

“To understand the risks of farming, you have to go beyond the farms” explains -Eren Atak, the Freshwater Program Manager at WWF-Türkiye, leading its work in the area. Driving through the Soke Plain at harvest season, she points out where some of the problems arise.

While trucks and warehouses are brimming with freshly harvested fibers, the fields are brown and bare, their soil dry, cracked, and left exposed to the elements over the winter. On some plots, late blooming bolls still cling to defoliated stems – on others, machinery is already at work to till the soil or flatten out the fields in preparation for the use of flood irrigation.

Farming in harmony with the local ecosystem

As part of its program in the Büyük Menderes basin, WWF-Türkiye is setting out to show the textile industry that there is a way to produce cotton that gives back to the local ecosystem instead. One solution comes in the form of two pilot plots of land in the Soke Plain, where it is working alongside local farmers and a team of scientists to grow cotton with increased respect for soil, water, and nature.

The first plot is situated at Söktaş, a farm in the small village of Sazlı where farmers have been trialing regenerative practices for five years and working alongside WWF-Türkiye for three. Here, the cotton fields are set against a mountainous landscape, interrupted only by the silver pipes of the farm’s center-pivot irrigation system. It’s currently being tested as a more water-efficient alternative to flood irrigation and is the first sign of the owners’ willingness to find ways to grow cotton that respect the local resources, rather than depleting them.

“We are the owners of the soil, and this is our responsibility,” explains İrfan Uysal, who manages the plot, where low and no-tillage /methods are used and agricultural chemicals are minimized in favor of homemade compost. “We have this resource, and we have to take care of it.”

A few steps into the field further reveal what this looks like in action. The soil is covered under a blanket of mulch, made from a decomposing mix of cover crops like turnip, wheat, pea, and sorghum that protects it from rains and erosion. Grown on the land in the spring before the cotton was planted in their place, each provides it with a unique service, from boosting nitrogen to increasing aeration.

“You can see the biodiversity in the soil – it’s alive,” remarks Uysal, describing the myriad of creatures that have made the mulch their home. “I’ve been farming cotton for 30 years, and this is the first time that I’ve seen earthworms,” he adds, noting how each organism adds value to the soil’s ecosystem and increases its quality.

Observing outcomes from both the land and the lab

Other observations hide under the soil’s surface, only to be made when the cotton plants are pulled up to reveal their roots. “When the root of the plant grows vertically down, it means the soil is more aerated and less compact,” explains Dr Erdem Aykas, a professor at Ege University’s Faculty of Agriculture specialized in farm machinery, and consultant on the pilot. He checks several, and – accepting that achieving the results he wants will take time – sets the specimens and their still slightly unruly roots back down.

Lessons from the land are backed up with data from the lab, where the team closely monitors indicators like soil carbon levels, soil organic matter, aggregate stability, salinity, water holding capacity, and irrigation water efficiency, among many others.

This data is tracked alongside the farmers’ observations in a holistic monitoring approach where worm count – which has increased from zero to 100 per square meter by 10 centimeters of soil in the last two years – is just as important as outcomes like soil pH and porosity.

This careful balance of farm know-how with science and academic expertise helps optimize the practices that are used on the ground. Take the process of growing the cover crops and leaving them on the fields as mulch. To improve how this is done, Dr Aykas led the development of specialized roller crimper machinery, designed to fold the cover crops over before cotton planting begins, allowing them to remain on top of the soil. This process is followed by another no-till farm machine he developed, that cuts open the organic matter and sets the cotton seeds in place.

A similar system of testing and optimizing has been applied to making and applying the compost. “We started by using the recipe from the Soil Food Web School,” explains Iraz Candas, the project’s soil microbiology consultant. “Then we designed and tested a system to apply it that won’t kill the biology in the compost.”

Applying learnings in different geographical contexts

While the team might have landed on local recipes for success, one thing they know for certain is that no plot of land is the same. Methods must be tested in multiple locations on different types of soil, and adapted to the context in which they are used.

The second pilot plot is situated by the sea near the village of Tuzburgazı, offering the team the opportunity to trial their learnings on saline soil with a low organic matter content. It is part of Tanmanlar Agricultural Enterprise – a three-generation family that first got involved with WWF-Türkiye through its work with Better Cotton.

Here, the saltiness of the soil initially proved a challenge for the farmers. “The yields decreased for the first couple of years, at the beginning of our learning process,” recalls Fuat Tanman, who runs the farm as well as sitting as the chair of IPUD, Better Cotton’s strategic partner in Türkiye. “And so you have to be prepared for that.”

Despite the initial difficulties, Tanman persevered with the cover crops and compost recipes optimized with help from WWF-Türkiye and its consultants. Now the pilot is in its third year, and signs of success have started to show. “Usually in this area, the soil organic matter is below 1%,” he explains. “Here, it was 0.8%. But since we’ve been trialing the regenerative practices over the past three years, we have seen it rise to 1%.”

These subtle changes can be observed in the day-to-day management of the farm as well. Metin Samkose, one of the workers who manage the regenerative plot, illustrates the beneficial impacts on the land that he is observing through the concept of “şeytan yolu” or devil’s path – a term used among local cotton farmers to refer to strips of land in which the soil is so depleted that nothing can be grown. “Here, even the seytan yolu is starting to become fertile,” he explains with surprise, as dragonflies circle the lush green field in which he is standing.

Creating a financial safety net for others to experiment

Like Söktaş, Tanmanlar Agricultural Enterprise is big enough to be able to dedicate specific plots to trialing these methods and observing the results, taking the financial risk of a learning-from-doing approach. But decreases in yield are a steep price to pay for soil health, and one that they recognize smallholder farmers cannot shoulder.

“I would like us to be able to inspire other farmers, but it’s so important that smallholders have financial support because while everyone’s soil is different, not everyone can allocate land just to try and test things,” adds Samkose.

Uysal at Söktaş shares a similar sentiment: “We are working with academics, and we are observing the results. We see that this is the right direction, but we’re trying to find the right way to move this journey forward.” He too notes that finance will be key, and that government subsidies for regenerative practices could help.

This is important to WWF International’s vision for the long-term outcomes of its work in Türkiye. The project is part of its global mission to lead the adoption and implementation of water stewardship in the textile sector, and it is running water stewardship programs in countries like China, India, and Vietnam too. With the support of brands and local partners, it hopes that the efforts to test regenerative practices at pilot scale in the Soke region will help to influence policy development around financial support for interested farmers in Türkiye.

To set this in motion, WWF-Türkiye is beginning to diffuse the pilot learnings through a video series for farmers. Currently available on YouTube in Turkish, with English on its way, the series includes everything from compost recipes to simple on-farm soil tests. Beyond the farm gate, the team has facilitated the formation of the Söke Cotton Water Stewardship Committee, which aims to address the wider water problems in the area, and designed another pilot project, this time using modern irrigation systems.

Ultimately, an ecosystem like the Büyük Menderes basin requires a landscape-level approach, and the project’s success will depend on its ability to help inspire and educate others in the region to farm with increased respect for the resources around them. But as climate change threatens the resilience of conventional farming practices in the future, with increasing droughts and unpredictable weather, it almost feels like a shift in the system could be inevitable.

While the hope is that WWF-Türkiye’s pilots will pique local cotton farmers’ interest, encouraging peer-to-peer learning and community building, the team knows that it will take time, and most importantly – investment from the industry that uses the materials they produc“When we as farmers think about what we can do in the face of climate change, one of the key things is to implement these kinds of agricultural practices that help to protect the local ecosystem” summarizes Tanman. “But we do need a financial safety net in which to do so.”

Explore the FUll Series

Cultivating Cotton in a Key Biodiversity Area

Anass Ouaziz was the runner-up of our 2022 photography competition with Magnum Photos, which called on photographers to explore the visual stories that take place when fibers and materials are cultivated, created, spun, woven, sewn, loved and cherished – gaining cultural and emotional significance through the journey.

The post Growing Cotton in Harmony with Nature in the Büyük Menderes River Basin, Türkiye appeared first on Textile Exchange.

It’s February in the town of Glazoué in Benin’s central Aklampa district, and harvest season is nearing its end. The sun is high in the sky, and local smallholder farmers are busy weighing their yields. The community is gathered around a tall mound of soft white cotton, which is slowly packed into large wicker baskets and placed on the scales.

Among the group are Paul Leode and Elisabeth Degbohoue. The pair have been farming their own plots of land organically since 2007 and 2009 respectively, growing cotton in rotation with pigeon peas, peanuts, sesame and manioc, also known as cassava. They keep what they need to feed their family and sell the rest at the market.

Leode and Degbohoue are two of around eight thousand farmers working with the Beninese Organization for the Promotion of Organic Agriculture (OBEPAB), which trains local farmers in organic farming and promotes gender inclusivity. Now, they are safe in the knowledge that the soil that sustains them and their seven children – through both food crops and cotton – is free from chemical inputs.  

“The switch to organic farming practices has enabled my family and I to feel better about our health and to improve the condition of our soils,” Leode shares, speaking to the holistic benefits that come with rotating cash crops with food to eat and reducing exposure to hazardous pesticides.

“Thanks to organic cotton production, I’m able to rotate and combine food crops with growing products to sell without having to worry about contamination. As a result, I no longer need to go to the market to buy food products, because I produce enough to meet my family’s needs.”

“Producing organic cotton is a change of behavior that has never been easy,” he adds, “but with the conviction and the spirit of protecting health and the environment, I have had the courage and the will to overcome the use of chemical inputs.”

Creating space for hands-on learning in the field

When Leode and Degbohoue first decided to participate in the training, they wanted to move away from conventional agricultural chemicals, complaining of skin irritation, dizziness and coughing from contact with chemical pesticides. They had also observed a drop in soil fertility from the prolonged usage of chemical fertilizers, spurring their search for alternative options.

Now, the couple have learned how to use trap crops like okra and bissap – also known as hibiscus – and biopesticides made from ground neem seeds to deter pests on their land. They stay on top of regular weeding to keep their fields clean, replace fertlizers with compost and palm kernel cake, and graze cattle on their plots between rotations.

While cotton supports the livelihoods of half the population in Benin, these methods were long been seen as going against the grain, and women were left out of the conversation. Recognizing the value that an alternative approach to agriculture could bring to local communities, local agronomist Professor Simplice Davo Vodouhe started OBEPAB in 1996 to begin training farmers in an organic, inclusive model, with support from Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK).

“We started with cotton, because that is the main crop in Benin that uses pesticides, and with a group of just 17 farmers,” Professor Vodouhe shares. This hands-on approach, based on the Farmer Field School (FFS) model, has since put the learning in the hands of farmers while also understanding and addressing their needs – setting them up for long-term resiliency and independence.

“In a Farmer Field School we host a group of about 25 farmers regularly throughout the season on a “learning plot” where they trial different practices and observe the results for themselves,” adds Rajan Bhopal, International Project Manager at PAN UK. “With this approach, farmers rapidly adopt organic agriculture.” Today, OBEPAB supports more than five thousand certified organic farmers and three thousand farmers in conversion to organic.

Promoting gender parity from the ground up

Alongside training farmers in organic practices, OBEPAB and PAN UK are committed to cultivating gender parity from the ground up.

Degbohoue’s own success speaks to the value of this approach. She now manages an area of land twice as big as the one she started out with. What’s more, women make up 30% of the local organic farmers participating in the project, which is three times as many as for conventional cotton in the area.

This shift would not have been possible without expanding community perceptions around what women can do. “Thanks to the production of organic cotton and the support I get from OBEPAB, my husband has given me good land for my own production,” Degbohoue explains speaking to the success of one of its less conventionally named focus groups: the School for Husbands.

“In the beginning, when men had finished using their land, they’d leave it to their wives to crop,’ explains Professor Vodouhe. “This meant that women were left with poor land with very low yields. So, we needed men to give better land to their wives.”

OBEPAB went on to organize a workshop to help men and women discuss how to improve the situation, educating men to ensure women are given fertile land. And starting out with better soil became a significant step towards their financial independence.

“With better land and improved yield, women were able to get direct revenue from people who buy their products,” Vodouhe continues. “This also improved the overall situation of their households, as it meant they could invest money to help their children go to school.”

For Degbohoue, having access to better land has led to better yields, increased revenue, and financial independence. “I first work in my own field before helping my husband in his,” she notes. “What’s more, my husband no longer has much say in how I manage my income.”

Paving the way for financial freedom

Together with OBEPAB and PAN UK, the local farmers have shown that it is not only possible to avoid the use of pesticides and chemical inputs, but that doing so paves the way for financial freedom.

For the around five thousand farms that are now certified organic, yields are maintained in line with conventional cotton but reduced production costs and a premium price for organic have led to significantly increased profit and greater resilience. In addition, with intercropping and rotation farming techniques, farmers are creating new revenue streams while continually nourishing their soil.

“[Organic farming] has enabled me to improve our income through a 20% premium on top of the conventional price,” Leode shares, speaking to the premium that AIC – the National Interprofessional Cotton Association – pays for organic. “Through my income, it has enabled me to send my children to school.”

Yet despite the successes seen, OBEPAB relies on donors to fund its programs and is keen to attract funding from the private buyers of organic cotton to help cover the costs of training and certification, and support more farmers to convert to organic. Better purchasing practices, such as longer-term commitments would lend more stability to farmers and provide increased assurance for Benin’s fast-growing organic cotton sector.

Establishing the long-term resilience of Benin’s thriving organic cotton sector will be key to making sure any funds from the successes seen so far are invested back into the community. And this is how Degbohoue envisages her earnings being used, along with those of other women who are inspired to join her on the journey.

“By spreading and adopting organic farming on a massive scale, we will be able to build social and community infrastructure in our locality such as wells, shops, and small means of transport to local markets,” she summarizes. “I also hope that spreading the benefits of organic farming will help to protect our environment.”

See the full story

Empowering Cotton Communities in Aklampa, Benin

Lindokuhle Sobekwa sat on the judging panel of our 2022 photography competition with Magnum Photos, which called on photographers to explore the visual stories that take place when fibers and materials are cultivated, created, spun, woven, sewn, loved and cherished – gaining cultural and emotional significance through the journey.

The post Empowering Cotton Communities through Organic Farming in Aklampa, Benin appeared first on Textile Exchange.

First published in our Unwoven zine, photographer Cecilie Nicoline Rasmussen travels to the north of France to document the flax pulling process at Terre de Lin, a cooperative specialized in the culture and the conversion of textile flax from seed to fiber.

Every five to seven years in France’s Normandy region, a farmer’s field might turn into a sea of blue flowers. It signals that the flax plants have taken their turn on the land, patiently waiting amid a rotation of crops like peas, wheat, sugar beet, barley, or potatoes.

Cultivating flax for its fiber is an age-old craft in the area, which today has been interwoven with modern practices. Many farmers have learned farming from their fathers or grandfathers, transitioning the know-how between generations, and each growing the crop in their own way.

“It requires a different state of mind than doing things systematically,” explains Anne Nizery from Terre de Lin, a local cooperative of flax farmers, who is showing me around one of the farms. “Of course, farmers are now working a bit differently because there is new technology, but this local knowledge about flax production goes back to their heritage, to the farm where they grew up, and the type of soil that they have.”

“My pictures were taken close to the sea, where the climate is well adapted to growing flax thanks to the loamy soil and intermittency of rain and sunshine. The crop’s success in the area is down to a mixture of nature and know-how.” 

A support system for local farmers, Terre de Lin equips them with the resources, knowledge, and assistance needed to build a flourishing flax industry in the region. Its work begins with supporting farmers in the cultivation of the plants and extends through to the pulling, drying, and extraction of fibers from the stems. Every step demands precision and a profound respect for this temperamental and delicate crop.

My photographs document the journey from the farm to the processing plant. I wanted to show the multifaceted world surrounding flax – its tactile nature, local significance, and sensory richness. For me, the project is about showcasing how the farmers and their machinery are integral to an intricate ecological system that extends beyond the fields, intertwining with the local environment, daily life, and climate context.

Each photograph aims to capture the scent, mood, and sensuality of flax production. I try to seize the immediacy of moments, preserving the experience. Dry flax stems and soft fibers are compared with other textures and forms, as well as people seen and met locally.

The series seeks a deeper understanding of the balance between humans and land through the production of this material.

EXPLORE THE FULL SERIES

The Lineage of Linen

Cecilie Nicoline Rasmussen was the runner-up of our 2022 photography competition with Magnum Photos, which called on photographers to explore the visual stories that take place when fibers and materials are cultivated, created, spun, woven, sewn, loved and cherished – gaining cultural and emotional significance through the journey.

The post Uncovering the Lineage of Linen on Northern France’s Fields with Terre de Lin appeared first on Textile Exchange.

Each piece offers its own take on the links between materials and people, place, culture and nature – as well as their interconnectedness with questions around sustainability, social justice, and systems change. An antidote to the ambivalence that often characterizes our relationship with material items, it reframes their significance in our lives by helping to weave them into a wider conversation.

The cover of Unwoven was printed by Park Print on paper made from 50% hemp fiber by G.F Smith. The inside pages were printed on recycled paper, also by G.F Smith, and the magazine was bound using singer stitch.

Thank you to our contributors Carlos Jaramillo, Cecilie Nicoline Rasmussun, Christine Goulay, Kiana Kazemi, Kin Coedel, Leah Thomas, Madeleine Brunnmeier, Milan Kathiriya, Rachel Arthur, Ray Vázquez, Sabiha Çimen, Sofia Terçarolli, Yessenia Funes, and Yichen Zhou. Special thanks to FARFARM, Kipaş Textiles, Materra and Terre de Lin.

The post Introducing Unwoven: A Magazine All About the Materials in our Clothing and Textiles appeared first on Textile Exchange.

Environmental journalist Yessenia Funes meets the women at the heart of an agroforestry project in Irituia, Brazil, where cotton plants are grown among native fruit trees.

In the Brazilian town of Irituia, the sun is virulent – as it tends to be this far north in Brazil. It’s early August, and the local factory workers are going about their day-to-day jobs. Their facility processes fruits and plants for organic farms around the region of Pará, a Brazilian state that sits nestled on the Amazon rainforest’s northeastern edge. You can feel the jungle breathing into the community as children play in a stream that’s no doubt linked to the Amazon basin. 

At this factory, there’s none of the rust, steel, or men one might imagine. Instead, bright teal walls and two towering doorways stand over 10 feet tall. Inside, the floors are dotted with dried-out shells of tucumã fruit. Four women are hard at work, laughing and smiling as they prepare the fruit to be turned into oil for skincare products. “Having women working here is marvelous,” Eliete Nunes, lead producer at the factory whose hands are covered in black sticky pulp and shells from the fruit, said in Portuguese through a translator. “Farming gives meaning to our lives.”

This is the beauty of Cooperativa D’Irituia, the farm cooperative that owns and runs the factory. It’s women-led. And in a few short months, this safe space will be devoid of tucumã fruit, which grows on native palm trees. In its place, the factory will be full of organic cotton – where machines will gin the fiber and shape it into bales to transport.

Cotton has infused new life into the cooperative. Since 2021, it has been partnering with FARFARM, a start-up on a mission to reforest the Amazon biome, invest in smallholders, and clean up the fashion supply chain. 

FARFARM works with a flourishing network of local farmers and agricultural organizations like Cooperativa D’Irituia to grow cotton organically using agroforestry practices, before buying the bales to sell to French shoe company VEJA.

Agroforestry involves creating an ecosystem of plants and trees that bring diverse benefits to both the land and community, making for a farm that is at once a forest and a food system. Because of this approach, many local farmers grow cotton and native trees, like tucumã, just feet apart from each other on their land. Together, the crops help enrich the soil and provide farmers with multiple income sources. 

“Having women working here is marvelous. Farming gives meaning to our lives.”

While many farmers bring their products to Cooperativa D’Irituia’s factory for processing, it is just one partner among FARFARM’s growing web of producers. To help scale this model, the start-up also supports local initiatives that help to build out the region’s network of organic growers working with agroforestry. And throughout the region, women are at the helm of revitalizing the Amazon one cotton crop at a time. 

Take Lenise Oliveira, a farmer from the municipality of Santa Barbara. Oliveira is the founder of Ecovila Iandê – a forest village where she and her husband live and train local farmers about agroforestry. The 58-year-old former zoo technician became an agroforestry expert after buying some land in 2011.

“Every farm should be led by women,” said Oliveira outside her guest house, engulfed by the forest’s melody of rain showers and bat calls. She is a small but stately woman who wears glasses and often walks around with a machete strapped to her tool belt. She keeps her style simple and practical, but she’s always wearing two black rings on her left hand. Her husband cut them from dried tucumã fruit; one serves as their wedding ring.

The land at Ecovila Iandê is lush with green leaves and vibrant fruit: cocoa, bananas, acai, and achiote. The property is adorned with reused material, as well – like the green and brown glass bottles cut into windchimes. The organization now runs one of the few community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs in the north region of the country, selling organic produce to families in the nearby city of Belém that have pre-paid for the harvest.

As part of the cotton project’s partnership model, FARFARM covers the free training to local farmers at Ecovila Iandê so that they can learn how to grow cotton organically through agroforestry methods. Beto Bina, FARFARM’s founder, describes the training as “an MBA for smallholder farmers.”

A key lesson is that agroforestry is all about experimentation. Oliveira has experimented over the years with the design of agroforestry farms. Now, she has templates for how exactly cotton farmers should organize their land to maximize both the growth of their cotton and the forest.

“A key lesson is that agroforestry is all about experimentation.”

Helping farmers to implement these methods successfully has contributed to a self-sufficient ecosystem in which smallholders now learn from each other, even outside of structured training programs. Local farmer Maria do Socorro, for example, is growing cotton for the first time this year after being inspired by her neighbor, Cesar Souza, who was farming with agroforestry. 

She’s excited to plant trees that’ll not only provide colorful fruits to sell year after year but also an aesthetic for her land. She finds the agroforestry approach to farming “beautiful.” The visual appeal of yucca, flowers, and cotton growing in clean lines is part of what drew her into the work. 

Do Socorro’s mom used to farm, too, but her methods involved using blazing fires to burn plots after the harvest to clear and nourish the land. Those same ferocious flames, however, also chip away at the forest’s stunning expanse – all while releasing the carbon once stored in its tree trunks. Though the farmer’s strategy has changed, she still cherishes her mother’s memory when she’s out on the land.

Health plays a big part in why many farmers are looking to organic methods. It’s non all about offering environmentally friendly products to clothing and apparel companies – they also want chemical-free food to eat and sell. They want to skip the pesticides and toxins they believe are endangering their bodies and communities. And they want to end agricultural burns that pollute the air.

The women of Cooperativa D’Irituia say that cancer remains one of Irituia’s top diseases. The mother of Nayara Leão, the cooperative’s cotton and organic certification coordinator, had breast cancer. She’s now cancer-free. The daughter of cooperative president Mariângela da Cunha Borges was also diagnosed with cancer at 14. She’s cancer-free now, too. This is why the cooperative focuses heavily on health. Every last Friday of October, the women plan a day-long event on breast and prostate cancer awareness where they teach local women how to conduct breast exams and also help men break stigmas around checking for prostate cancer. 

“During our capacity-building training, we talk not only about agroforestry and cotton but also about health and protection,” Leão said.

“During our capacity-building training, we talk not only about agroforestry and cotton but also about health and protection.”

The cotton ecosystem in Brazil illustrates something we often forget about the items on store shelves – they are the products of both land and livelihoods. Every day in the field, workers have to walk around ant holes and bee hives. They toil beneath the sun. Sometimes, they even opt to work barefoot. Cotton is not a plant that simply grows – it is a plant that must be tended to: pruned, watered, harvested. The items in our wardrobes are not only something to wear – they are items that must be created, and agriculture is often the beginning of that lifecycle.

By incentivizing organic farming and agroforestry, FARFARM has given the fashion industry an alternative model to support. It’s also given local farmers a financially viable alternative to the monoculture farming that has contributed to the Amazon’s devastation. And most importantly, it’s building resilience – as the forest loses tree cover and moisture, it’s slowly converting to a drier savannah ecosystem, and agroforestry is one way to overcome the region’s increasing dry spells.

The start-up hopes that more fashion brands see the value of incorporating materials grown responsibly and invest in farmers who want to nourish the land, rather than exploit it. “Connecting smallholder farmers with brands is my life journey and what I believe the world needs,” said Bina. 

Already, his theory is proving true. Cooperative leaders say they are seeing the health of community members improve. They’re eating more organic produce and abandoning their annual burns. These women want the world to know that what we buy has consequences. Our shopping habits often harm people. Sometimes, however, what we buy can give back to the community in bountiful ways.

“We can’t scream loud enough for the world to hear us,” said Maria Fernanda de Oliveira Lima, Cooperativa D’Irituia’s secretary, in Portuguese through a translator. “Our stories need to be told.”

“We can’t scream loud enough for the world to hear us. Our stories need to be told.”

The post Planting Cotton Forests on the Edge of the Amazon in Brazil with FARFARM appeared first on Textile Exchange.

For her series “Where the Wind Blows,” first published in our Unwoven zine, photographer Yichen Zhou visited three Mongolian sheepherder families in Mandula Town to explore the ecosystem behind nomadic wool production, documenting how these traditions are changing over time.

“Where the Wind Blows” uses wool as its point of origin. I visited three sheepherder families in Mandula Town, at the border between Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, and Mongolia.
What was once a single nation is now divided by a national borderline.

With the development of the modern economy and new grazing techniques, the herdsmen that I photographed in Inner Mongolia had gradually given up their nomadic yurts and adjusted to “modern grazing” – moving into mud houses or brick homes with solar energy and high-speed internet. Now, they use motorcycles to herd their animals, monitoring equipment covers the entire grassland,
and their mobile phones let them find their flocks at any time.

Yet in the homes of each family that I visited, wool-related items were found in abundance. There were wool scarves, rugs, blankets, unfinished sweaters, a beloved lamb, and of course, their flocks.
I used these objects as backdrops to take their portraits. I crafted the cyanotypes, contact printing grass, sheep manure, and wool
in a way that contains the traces of time. I embroidered traditional Mongolian costumes on their pictures.

Through these objects and actions, I seek to show the entire ecosystem behind wool and find a pause between modern and traditional Mongolian culture that stops the loss of yesterday’s ways. With so much in flux, the only constant is the wind blowing across the grassland and the enduring prevalence of this material in their lives.

EXPLORE THE FULL SERIES

Where the Wind Blows

Yichen Zhou was the winner of our 2022 photography competition with Magnum Photos, which called on photographers to explore the visual stories that take place when fibers and materials are cultivated, created, spun, woven, sewn, loved and cherished – gaining cultural and emotional significance through the journey.

The post Exploring the Ecosystem behind Nomadic Wool Production in Inner Mongolia appeared first on Textile Exchange.

Following Textile Exchange’s first London-based conference in October 2023, we created Fieldnotes: a short film that shines a light on UK-based farmers who are pioneering sustainable material production.

Produced in collaboration with The Right To Roam Films, Fieldnotes unearths the perspectives of three farmers who are restitching the connection between fibers, textiles, and the local living landscape.

Watch the film

With a focus on flax, wool, and hemp, Fieldnotes traces the emerging revival of the UK’s fiber heritage, reflecting on how material production directly impacts soil, biodiversity, water, and rural communities.

Watch Video

Close video

The post Rebuilding the Connection Between Fibers, Textiles, and the UK Landscape appeared first on Textile Exchange.

The competition saw over 500 photographers from over 70 countries share their interpretations of the multitude of ways in which we transform textiles, and textiles in turn transform us. By placing these themes at the center of the story, the resulting 8,000 photographs reframed the way we relate to their social, cultural, and environmental implications, helping to alter our attitude towards these everyday items.

Clothing and textiles connect us intrinsically to our planet and its many ecosystems, cultures, and communities. While each transformation brings cultural and emotional significance, our collective appreciation of textiles often centers around the product itself, rather than where it came from, who created it, or what it has come to mean.

Chosen by our jury including Aditi Mayer (Photojournalist, Sustainability Activist), Claire Bergkamp (CEO, Textile Exchange), Sonia Jeunet (Education Director, Magnum), Yessenia Funes (Independent Environmental Journalist), Emily Chan (Senior Sustainability and Features Editor, British Vogue), Lindokuhle Sobekwa (Magnum Photographer), and Peter Van Agtmael (Magnum Photographer), the winner and runner-up portrayed entirely contrasting relationships between people and textiles, highlighting both their incredible potential to transform communities and shape identities, as well as contributing to a societal model driven by consumption.

WINNER

Kin Coedel

Kin Coedel is an analog photographer from Hong Kong who grew up in Canada. Having worked as a womenswear designer, and later as a fashion photographer, in 2020 Kin took a break to travel to Tibet, Mogolia, and India to explore the roof of the world and places that are essentially off-limits to Western cultures.

Coedel’s journey took him back to his own origins, as he set out to redefine how Eastern communities are portrayed. His work aims to go beyond being a voyeuristic lens, prioritizing genuine exchanges with local communities. Mindful of power dynamics and historical representations, the artist collaborates with translators to ensure understanding and consent, co-creating images that reflect authentic stories. His work challenges preconceptions, inviting viewers to engage in meaningful dialogues about the traditions, struggles, and triumphs of these communities.

Dyal Thak, the name of Coedel’s submission, means “a common thread” in Tibetan. The project began with an assignment from Norlha Atelier, a womenswear label that specializes in handwoven yak khullu wool. This raw material, deeply ingrained in Tibetan cultural heritage, embodies centuries of traditional herding practices and craft.

Through this series, Coedel showcases the nomadic community’s sustainable herding practices and the stories that are woven into every thread, celebrating the transformative power of tradition preserved and revived.

As our 2023 competition winner, Coedel will receive an £8,000 commission for Textile Exchange as well as mentorship with a Magnum photographer. His works will also be displayed in an original exhibition at the 2023 Textile Exchange Conference in London, October 23-27.

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Dyal Thak: A Common Thread

RUNNER UP

Madeleine Brunnmeier

Berlin-based artist Madeleine Brunnmeier studied Visual Communication at the Berlin University of the Arts as well as at Musashino Art University Tokyo. Characterized by curiosity, explores both observationally and conceptually the relationships between individuals and their environment.

She often likes to work with places and things she finds without changing them, but pointing out the narrative she sees through the process of staging. Another big part of her work focuses on portrait photography where she recently discovered her joy in analogue working processes.

Brunnmeier’s competition entry, Gestalten, is a photo series of temporary sculptures, composed of people and all their possessions of clothing. Throughout our lives, our clothing becomes an archive – a mass of identity, culture, and memory.

We are constantly surrounded by textiles. Our clothes are an everyday companion, a second skin. By bringing these garments to the fore, Gestalten encourages reflection on the relationships people have with their material possessions.

As the competition runner-up, Brunnmeier will receive a £5,000 commission for Textile Exchange and mentorship with a Magnum Photographer. Her works will also be displayed in an original exhibition at the 2023 Textile Exchange Conference in London, October 23-27.

Explore THe series

Gestalten: A New Narrative on Clothing Consumption

The 2023 competition is now closed. Sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date with this year’s winners and the latest announcement for 2023.

The post Exploring Textile Transformations with Magnum Photos for our 2023 Competition appeared first on Textile Exchange.

Our latest docu-story sees independent environmental journalist Yessenia Funes unearth an ex-accountant’s journey towards creating climate-resilient cotton in Gujarat, India.

In this story, Funes speaks with Ranvirsinh Vaghela, who, after realizing that his family farm was struggling to make a profit, decided to put all his energy into switching to organic. He’s now part of a growing network of cotton farmers in India working with Materra – an innovative company helping to encourage the adoption of regenerative growing practices.

As one of Materra’s “master farmers,” Vaghela draws on his experience with organic agriculture to help other local farmers reduce and substitute their chemical inputs.

Ranvirsinh Vaghela originally studied to become an accountant. And the 39-year-old was good at it. After he used those accounting skills — crunching numbers to calculate profits and losses — to assess the earnings of his father’s farm in their village of Delvad in Gujarat, India, Vaghela changed career paths to assist his family. The figures he found were troubling: “There was no profit,” he said in Gujarati over a video call. 

Vaghela’s father used conventional farming methods that often involve pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Conventional farms can grow expensive to maintain, and some farmers have observed these external inputs to diminish soil quality and harm their own health. In 2016, Vaghela decided to convert his family farm to organic. Now, his produce sells for more at the market. 

The accountant-turned-farmer has zero regrets about the switch. His crops now include cauliflower, wheat, sweet corn, tomatoes, cabbage, chilis — and cotton, the only one he offers on the global market. That’s because, for two years, Vaghela has been a part of a growing network of farmers in his area working with Materra, an innovative company helping to encourage the adoption of regenerative growing practices and optimize them for the local environment.

In 2022, Materra began working closely with 21 farmers in Vaghela’s community. There was no prerequisite to be using organic methods already – instead, Materra met the farmers where they were. Its ethos was all about learning from those who know the local land best, moving away from the specific requirements that organic certification requires toward a context-based approach. This year, the company has grown its collaboration to over 1,000 farmers so that they can scale regenerative cotton farming in the region together and collect data as they go.

Materra’s strategy involves identifying “master farmers,” such as Vaghela, who are encouraged to share methods from which they’ve seen success. “Our program design team runs workshops to onboard these insights and imbed them into our core crop recipe we use with farmers within that region,” said Edward Brial, Materra’s CEO.

Materra’s strategy involves identifying “master farmers,” such as Vaghela, who are encouraged to share methods from which they’ve seen success.

As a master farmer, Vaghela draws on the knowledge he’s gained over the years to help his peers. He’s shared the value of intercropping – where a crop is planted in between lines of cotton. He has found that placing cucumber and sweet corn in between cotton nourishes the soil.

His experience with organic agriculture also helps other farmers to reduce and substitute their chemical inputs. It’s something he sees as particularly important within his community since pesticide exposure can result in various negative health outcomes from skin problems and headaches to different types of cancer.

“Chemical farming is like slow poison,” Vaghela said. Protecting his family from these risks has been one of the greatest benefits since moving away from conventional farming methods. “I’m proud that whatever I grow is good for my health, the consumer’s health, and the planet’s health.”

Making such switches, however, is far from simple for farmers. Agriculture can be unpredictable, and changes can result in poor yields which directly affect their income. Take Vaghela’s own experience. His first two years were spent experimenting on how to keep pests and diseases at bay without the use of toxic products, so some harvests failed entirely. 

“I couldn’t compete with other farmers in terms of production,” he said. He didn’t have any support from his peers, either. They didn’t understand why he wouldn’t stick with the old ways.

Materra hopes that creating a safe space for knowledge sharing between farmers will help them withstand the financial pains that come with this transition. The company brings in its own innovative expertise to help optimize practices seen to work on the ground, and onboards brands to contribute finances too.

Materra hopes that creating a safe space for knowledge sharing between farmers will help them withstand the financial pains that come with this transition.

“We take a precision agriculture mindset, supporting farmers on the key times to apply nutrients or how to control pests, helping minimize the inputs needed to grow a profitable crop,” said Edward Hill, Materra’s chief sustainability officer.

“Our goal is to partner brands with farmers into 10-year agreements to really enable change at ground level by providing stability to farmers and enabling meaningful transitions,” added Brial.

Materra is also developing a farmer support app called Co:Farm. This AI-powered mobile and web application provides live, adaptive support to farmers and collects impact data, enabling the rapid scaling of regenerative farming. The impact data generated will also allow greater clarity for consumers who want to know more about where the raw materials in their purchases have come from and how they have been grown.

By communicating regularly with farmers, Materra hopes to improve their visibility. “Transparency is difficult to achieve when farmers are invisible and hidden behind complex trading initiatives,” Brial said. “Our field teams in India visit them regularly, and we can talk with them almost daily now through the Co:Farm platform.”

Ultimately, Materra believes that using innovation to help scale regenerative agriculture will give farmers the opportunity to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. With the production and use of conventional pesticides and fertilizers thought to increase the emissions associated with growing different foods and fibers, removing these inputs can help them lower the climate impacts of their farming. At the same time, building back soil health can help get depleted land plots back in action.

Transparency is difficult to achieve when farmers are invisible and hidden behind complex trading initiatives.

India’s farmers are especially in need. Climate change is making the country — its resources and its people — increasingly vulnerable. In June, a deadly heat wave overwhelmed the northern part of India, leaving at least 96 people dead. Such heat waves hit farmers whose work requires them to spend grueling hours outdoors beneath the unforgiving sun. There are also droughts and floods: India has been reported to have lost at least 70 million hectares of farmland since 2015 to such extreme weather. 

Vaghela hopes more companies move to support regenerative farming because, the way he sees it, there’s no alternative given the ecological and health crises the fashion industry presents to communities like his. He wants to pass his land and all that it’s taught him along to the next generation — to his son.

And today, the local farmers are finally taking note. As more growers start experimenting with these kinds of practices, Vaghela is waiting for them, ready to offer the help he desperately needed when he first got started.

Together with the support of Materra, they can improve the fashion industry one cotton crop at a time.

The post Growing Climate-Resilient Cotton with Materra’s Master Farmers in Gujarat, India appeared first on Textile Exchange.