Captured at a brick kiln in rural Muzaffarpur, Bihar, this series documents the lives of the kiln’s workers, their working conditions, health challenges, financial struggles, and family life. Typically beginning before sunrise and spanning long hours of shooting, this project focuses on the emotional and human side of an otherwise industrial process. Shaped over a period of nearly two years, the work would not have been possible without the support of the kiln’s manager, to whom I am grateful for granting permission to document the premises.

Workers at the kiln are engaged in various stages of brick production—from digging clay and moulding mud bricks, to firing them in the kiln and eventually packing and transporting the finished bricks. Most of them come from marginalized groups where such labour has taken the shape of a generational occupation sustained within families due to enduring financial hardships and caste hierarchies.

Both men and women work under harsh conditions: extreme temperatures from the heat of the kiln, persistent dust and industrial pollution, and lack of proper ventilation and protective equipment. The wages are meagre, and employment itself is usually seasonal, dependent on weather conditions and demand for construction materials.

Despite the hardships, many workers migrate long distances for this labour, often bringing their families along. Children, too, are part of this environment, and entire households live in makeshift accommodations situated near the kiln, forming a fragile and demanding ecosystem of survival around the market forces of brick production that power our urban sprawls.