Worker
Barbara Banks
In 2017, a bricklayer was working on south façade of the 1926 Elliott building. As he swiped a trowel of mortar, brick in hand, poised to place, he paused, turned to Geran Harris of Willis Smith Construction and said “You know Geran, 100 years ago, guys just like us first laid these bricks.”
That simple, yet movingly profound acknowledgement set this project in motion.
Building a new art museum involves thousands of people. Some of those people’s names will be on brass plaques and some names will grace galleries and lobby walls. The names of others will be in archives and files and rosters and press clippings. But there is a group of people who were integral in physically reshaping the historic Sarasota High School—the construction workers. Their skills, experience, expertise, training, intelligence, ingenuity, tradecraft and work ethic all come together in the hands that laid the brick, sawn the lumber, welded the steel, and ran the lines.
The Museum commissioned SHS alumna Barbara Banks to celebrate and memorialize the workers. Banks is an accomplished photographer, whose creative path was forged at the historic Sarasota High School, where she studied under H.O. Davis, an artist and educator who inspired countless students at the high school. She was the ideal creative partner for this project.
Barbara Banks’ exquisite portrait photographs of the individuals who lent their talents to remake the building celebrate a class of people who often remain invisible. Banks’ project, Worker, seeks to make visible the invisible, to put a face to the labor that resulted in the Museum.
“Because these shoots took place on site day-after-day over many months, an intimate bond was created, as I would repeatedly observe individuals who were deeply engaged in their work. This alone was fascinating – like entering the sacred space of an artist’s studio. When we spoke about their particular art and trade, and the fact that their portrait would be a permanent part of an art museum, they lit up. Faces and body language revealed a sense of surprise, shifting to pride – eyes would widen to a “smile,” body language opened – conveying an unspoken sense of honor. Many verbalized gratitude for being “seen,” as they live with being overlooked, invisible. These incredible and memorable moments were and continue to be celebratory.”
– Barbara Banks
This project comes at an interesting time in the economic history of the United States, and the history of labor globally. We are on the cusp of a seismic shift in labor, as mass automation looms on the horizon. What we see in these photographs—manual labor connecting human beings across millennium—will soon be a rarity, rather than the norm. The craft involved in these trades cannot be replicated by machine, and the micro-decisions and judgments that craft and trade people exhibit in the field—their connoisseurship—will never be replicated by a machine. Millions of years of evolution—the iterative design process—have gone into refining the machine that is the human body. A.I. simply can’t compete with human creativity.
Barbara Banks: Worker is presented by The Memory Project, comprised of exhibits, archives, and public programming devoted to preserving, stewarding and interpreting the historic Sarasota High School site.
Photos from the Exhibition
Abel
Abel
Adan
Ahmad
Alex
Alexander
Andrew
Anthony
Ariel and Benny
Armando
Arturo
Aubrey
Aud
Augustine
Augustine
Balthazar
Barnabe
Barry and Bradley
Ben
Ben
Benjamin
Bill
Bill
Bill
Billy
Bobby
Brandon
Brian
Calino
Carno
Casimero
Chris
Chris
Chris
Chris
Chris
Christopher
Chris, Travis, Jorge, Jason, and Dennis
Chuck
Cody
Corey
Cornelio
Cristina
Cruz
Damian
Dan
Daniel
Dave
Dave
David
David
David
Dennis
Don
Ed, AJ, and Brad
Efiqenio
Elisio
Elmer
Emelio
Emilio
Enrique
Eugene
Eunice and Quirina
Ezequial
Ezequial
Felipe
Felipe
Felipe
Fernando
Francisco
Franklin
Freddy and Alfredo
George
George
Geran
Gilbert
Gilbert
Greg
Guillermo
Guillermo
Guri
Hank
Harry
Hector
Hector
Helena
Henzell
Hugo
Ivan
James
James
James
Jason
Jason
Javier
Javier
Javier
Jeff
Jeni
Jesus
Jimmy
Jimmy
Joe
Joe
Joe, Javier, Chris, Dennis, and Cornelio
Joe
Joe
John
John
John
Jorge
Jose
Jose
Jose
Jose
Jose
Jose
Jose and James
Jose, Jesse, Willy, and Colvyn
Joshua
Josias
Jovani
Juan
Juan
Juan
Juan
Juan
Junior
Kirk
Kurt
Kyle
Lilian
Lindsay
Lorenzo
Louis
Luis
Malachi
Manuel
Marie
Mark
Mark
Marshall
Martin
Marty
Marvin
Mauricio
Mauricio
Michael
Mick
Miguel
Miguel
Miguel
Mike
Mike
Mike
Mike
Myron
Nathan
Omar
Omar, Gordon, and George
Onex
Orle
Oscar
Osman
Patricio
Quirina
Randy
Raphael
Raul
Raul
Raul
Ricardo
Rick
Rocky
Rogelio
Ronny
Salvador
Salvador
Samual
Santos
Stacey
Steve
Steve
Tim
Tom
Tony
Tony
Transito
Travis and Jason
Wayne
Willy
Woodrow
Zack