guts

i work in the art department (ok, i am the art department) for a trumpet manufacturing company.  i am surrounded by machines and tools every day. most of the people i work with make fun of me a little because they catch me snapping photos of brass, spools of solder, on/off switches, stacks of metal stamps, spilled epoxy... i think all of these things make for great compositions. every now and then i get to go along when we shop for new tooling... and i LOVE this. abandoned machine shops, dirty warehouses, massive spaces filled with greasy tools heaped in piles... a lonely chair... someone's gloves left on their work bench the day the business closed it's doors. these industrial ghost towns are hauntingly beautiful. i have friends and family members that have been directly affected by the mass exodus of manufacturing from minnesota... well, from america. i have seen the "leftovers" of so many industrial buildings that i can't really believe there are any left. watching people swoop in after a business has been auctioned off is a bit like watching vultures picking apart a carcass. i could go on and on about how i worry that no one knows how to build, grow or fix anything these days... and that it's going to be interesting to watch a society of people incapable of taking care of their own basic needs continue on into the coming century... but instead i will just show you the photos. enjoy.