Cambodia’s building boom is being fueled by expectation of increased tourist numbers to Angkor Wat and property investment speculation. This, coupled with increased wealth of locals and their financial ability to build homes adds to demand for building blocks, keeping villagers busy in factories across the nation.
Workers are drawn from around the country to work in factories, often moving on site with their families. It’s team work, from small family run sites to the larger scale factories, which now invest in machinery to aid production. In small family run plants bricks are still extrude and cut by hand. The bricks are then dried for one month removing excess moisture before being stacked and fired in large kilns.
Bricks have been around for thousands of years, the process unchanged other than modern machinery to remove the laborious work. Pre ninth century Angkorian temples constructed from red brick still stand around South East Asia, their manufacturing process would probably be similar to what we see today.
Meet the ladies
A family business
Shaping the perfect brick
The inspector
Grandma
Team work
Ladies, loading the kiln
The perfect stack
Fuelling the fire
End of day smiles
Strike a pose!
2 comments. Leave new
I always like pictures with a story! Well done Darren! A brick factory is something special and the one you visited is still working and accessible. You were lucky! The one I found was empty and in Europe you can`t find this!
A brick factory gives a great opportunity to exercise your ability with your camera: There is interesting light, working people, fire and smoke…. what else you need for an interesting picture 🙂 ?
Cheers Stefan. These places are great for us photographers, but some attract bad working practices, not this one. It is not for everyone, but something I’m sure the right client will appreciate. Maybe something for your next trip?? 🙂