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Seeing the World Through Clotheslines, From Italy to China (Sponsored)

By Ellyn Kail on June 3, 2016

Laundry in Havana, Cuba © Jeremy Woodhouse / Blend / Offset

Laundry in Gothenburg © Johnér / Offset

Padding through the tight cobblestone alleyways of Venice, it’s common to see clotheslines connecting one house to its neighbor. Drying machines are rarities in Italy, and women of these historic homes take great pride in the meticulous hanging of their families’ garments. There is a proper way to air-dry everything from linens and undergarments, and much can be learned about one’s neighbors simply by the skill and etiquette displayed during laundry day, when the fragrance of detergent commingles with that of the salty canal.

Having grown accustomed to the (often wasteful) use of machine driers, American tourists to foreign countries are astonished by the colorful arrays of drying clothing. Indeed, there is a genuine artistry to the ways in which faraway residents care for their clothing. In Italy, laundry, called bucato, is particularly meaningful in the older cities, where wisdom is passed down from one generation to the next, usually by women.

It’s not just the older European nations where the craft of washing clothes has been honed to an art form. In Mumbai, India, where the population has become overwhelmingly dense in recent years, laundry is not only a necessity but also a way of life.

The washermen and women who work in the city open air laundries usually come from a long line of mothers and fathers who have shared the occupation. The largest is the now-famous Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, founded in 1890, where an estimated one million pieces of clothing are cleaned daily by some of the most efficient and hardworking people in the world. The complex included concrete pens, flogging stones, wash basins, and clotheslines, and the scent of soap carries throughout the surrounding community, where the workers live in modest homes.

In honor of summertime, when air-drying season is certainly in full bloom, we’ve pulled together this collection of exquisite images from Offset, taken around the world and all picturing laundry hung out to dry.

These images are certainly beautiful, filled with the billowing fabrics and vivid hues that commingle and play upon local architecture, but their significance runs far beyond the aesthetic. How a community chooses to clean their domestic items tells so much about who they are—their history and the philosophies of daily life.

A boy standing in front of drying laundry stretches out to feel the sun in Bahia, Brazil © Gabriel Boieras / SambaPhoto / Offset

Laundry hanging from a line in Venice, Italy © Michele Crowe / Offset

A Masaai family drying clothes in the sun © Randy Olson / National Geographic / Offset

Saris drying after washing on the banks of River Yamuna, Agra, India © Peter Adams / Offset

Beside the Ganges River in Varanasi, India © Caleb Kenna / Offset

Drying clothes in Baku, Azerbaijan © Machi di Pace / Offset

Apartment building in downtown Mumbai, India © Shanna Baker / Offset

Rajasthani women outside their houses at Jaisalmer Fort © Bisual Studio / Offset

A Venetian canal © Anna Petrow / Offset

Laundry hanging on a clothes line between buildings in Burano, Italy © National Geographic / Offset

Laundry hung out to dry in the Philippines © Brian Flaherty / Offset

A woman hangs laundry in a housing estate surrounded by unfinished communist style housing in Copsa Mica, Transylvania, Romania © Tim Clayton / Offset

All photos featured in this post can be found on Offset, a new curated collection of high-end commercial and editorial photography and illustration from award-winning artists around the world. Offset is a sponsor of Feature Shoot.

Seeing the World Through Clotheslines, From Italy to China (Sponsored)

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