On the Ice

Torrington, Connecticut

This concrete tank that the kids are standing on, pretending to each other that they're not scared to slip and fall, was, near as I can tell, part of primitive air conditioning for the adjacent factory. Some sort of heat sink for an evaporative cooling system that served, probably, just some parts of the plant. The factory has been out of operation for years, so kids ignore trespass signs and play around, discovering a mini hockey rink, though some new fences have gone up recently, so perhaps someone thinks they will revive the property, if not the business that built the complex so many decades ago.

The Torrington Company was a rather important client of mine for nearly a decade (as a freelance commercial photographer working with their industrial advertising agency) back in the 1980s. I photographed the work done on the shop floor here (all equipment and machine tools now either scrapped or shipped off to buyers in the Far East) for brochures that touted the firm for its tradition of Yankee Craftsmanship, and so forth. I don't know if the company even still exists, though I do know that the ad agency that served as intermediary is deader than a doornail, and has been for quite a while.