Torrington, ConnecticutThis was once one of many parking lots for a major manufacturing company with home offices in Torrington, CT. There were large manufacturing facilities in town and scattered across the country. About twenty-five years ago I did the photography for several "capability brochures" for this very company. There don't seem to be any capabilities left to brag about now. Looks like a skeleton crew is around to maintain the buildings, or perhaps serve some warehouse functions.
The large storefront below has been empty and apparently untouched for years. It sits at the main intersection of downtown streets in the small city of Meriden.
Meriden, Connecticut
2 comments:
old factory sites may make interesting photographs, but they are depressing (wasn't it Barthes who said photography was basically sad since it is always about things past?). I took the train from NYC to Jersey today and right out of the tunnel and beyond nothing but closed down factories. The empty store front illustrates your idea of 'waiting for something'. The storefront by itself is interesting, but add the walker .... (trying to get into the building? the broom keeping her out?) ....
The factories have a special pull for me. My father worked in a factory complex in Belleville, NJ, most of his adult life. Later on much of my work was corporate/industrial photography for a couple of decades. I used to complain that I'd traveled to dozens of states seeing only airports, hotels, and factories. Now I complain that there's no more industrial photography to do...
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