David Gray's pictures of the week 4-12-2006

DAVID GRAY photography
	T - S H I R T S
	P I C T U R E S O F T H E W E E K 4 - 1 2 - 2 0 0 6

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The pictures this week are about t-shirts. Ubiquitous and humble garments, t-shirts are the fast food of the fashion business and sell in their millions. They are also, it may be surprising to learn, guilty of contributing to both global warming and the exploitation of the developing world. The manufacture, distribution and final disposal of the average t-shirt consumes 1.5g of fossil fuel, emits 4kg of carbon dioxide and sends 450g of waste to landfill. Over its typical lifespan, it uses up 65 megajoules of energy in washing, ironing and drying. Then, in economic terms, the Chinese workers who make our t-shirts get paid just 43 pence a day, while shops in the UK can charge £10 for each one. You see some pretty awful stuff printed on t-shirts, but the things themselves, it seems, are even worse.

Outside a Brighton clothes shop in August 1994 (image 925-17)

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