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Aug. 26th, 2010 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogThanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jojomojo for sharing a link to more Depression era color photographs. These are all amazing. I particularly like the one of a shepherd on a horse with his dog looking up at him. But the one that just blew me away was the last one, of a worker at a carbon black plant in Texas.
Carbon black is produced from 'sour' gas that's a byproduct of petrochemical production; gas with a lot of particulate matter content. It's burned off to produce a nearly elementally pure carbon powder that's used in tires, rubber and plastic goods, and many other things.
I look at this picture and try to imagine what this plant was like. What this man was working with before posing for this picture. How soot and grime was caked and annealed onto his face like a stone mask. This is one of the most powerful portraits I've ever seen.
jojomojo for sharing a link to more Depression era color photographs. These are all amazing. I particularly like the one of a shepherd on a horse with his dog looking up at him. But the one that just blew me away was the last one, of a worker at a carbon black plant in Texas. Carbon black is produced from 'sour' gas that's a byproduct of petrochemical production; gas with a lot of particulate matter content. It's burned off to produce a nearly elementally pure carbon powder that's used in tires, rubber and plastic goods, and many other things.
I look at this picture and try to imagine what this plant was like. What this man was working with before posing for this picture. How soot and grime was caked and annealed onto his face like a stone mask. This is one of the most powerful portraits I've ever seen.
