You can buy old bricks..the hosiery is gone. by TomDart

Photography • Historical • posted on Feb 22, 2011

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Description

I've read stories of how the families would be laid off work, pack up and move to another state, another town, another textile mill. They'd breathe the same dust, work the same machines and again the job would end. Pack up again, move back where they had been because work had come back to the mill. This textile mill made hosiery, I'd call it socks. It churned and spun and paid its help from 1906 for some 40 more years of layoffs, rehires. During that time the unions came. Some times got better I suppose. Ultimately it was a stubborn union on one side, unmoving management on the other and a strike too long. The factory simply closed. After 1967 nothing spun or churned and nothing was loaded on trucks for shipping. The families all went somewhere. Shot at 18mm. The wide angle puts all in acceptable focus from the gate post 5 feet away to infinity.

Comments (10)

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kgb224

5:16PM | Tue, 22 February 2011

Stunning capture my friend.

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doarte

5:17PM | Tue, 22 February 2011

Says it all, stunning!

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Chipka

7:00PM | Tue, 22 February 2011

There's something to be said for progress, and yet, there's always something of value lost, when things improve and I guess it all stems from a particularly lopsided view of what progress actually is. I believe that things should improve and that societies need to evolve...but I'm often alarmed at the cost such improvements make, especially when jobs vanish, livelihoods go extinct, and pieces of history simply crumble and go away. Progress is a good thing, but we need--desperately--to find a better way to move forward...otherwise it's just like going on a journey by foot, and cutting off our toes on the way. Okay, now that I've ranted and rambled on a bit, I suppose I should say how amazing this photograph truly is. I love the choice to present it in black and white. There's an emotional significance that just screams out of an image when all colors are removed, leaving only black, white, and numerous shades of gray. The details in this are quite amazing, and there's a haunting, haunted quality to this as well. I think so much of that probably hinges on that water tower; it's a great visual anchor, and yeah...water towers of that sort are like hosiery manufacturers...they're endangered, and in some places, extinct. What a photo! Amazing.

gonzojr

7:34PM | Tue, 22 February 2011

This is a great capture.

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bmac62

10:06PM | Tue, 22 February 2011

Well done Tom. I am becoming more and more intrigued by black & white. Chip is right. There is emotion here. The road leads my eye through what today is a graveyard of industry. Makes me think...and that's what a good image is supposed to do.

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