Of all of the photographs I made at the Marshall Glove Plant in 1979, this one has long been my favorite and the only one I’ve published in the last 42 years. Why?
Foremost is the directness and openness of her interaction with me - the trust that my camera will represent her for who she is, nothing more, nothing less.
There is an angelic quality to her gaze - a Madonna of the Mill if you will. There is a clear sense of pride in her work, her pleasure at having this job, and the knowledge she is bringing likely needed income to her family.
Yet photographs also have an ability to see beyond the obvious and offer a contrary opinion to our surface observations. And what I see is the lint coating her blouse, her chest and neck, and around her face. And I wonder what repeated exposure to that lint is doing to her lungs and respiratory system - the prevalence of brown lung disease among mill workers, a not-so-distant cousin to black lung disease among mine workers.
My friend, and extraordinary photographer, Titus Heagins, commented on my last post from the Capitola Mill that throughout history women have always been tasked with the “heavy lifting”, the hard and dirty jobs. He’s right, of course.
It reminds of a phrase I heard not long after moving to the mountains - “Men’s Work.” I was helping neighbors with their tobacco or tomatoes, I can’t remember which, and I noticed that the women were doing the harder and dirtier jobs, while the men seemed to have claimed the far easier work for themselves; work that offered the opportunity for more breaks, visiting, cigarettes, and generally far less intensive work, being the boss. When I asked what those men were doing over by the truck talking, having a beer, smoking while the women were hauling sticks of tobacco to the barn in 90 degree heat, they replied, “Oh, they’re doing men’s work.”
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The Capitola Mill reopens on Thursday, October 21, from 5-8 pm. Music, eats, conviviality. Come see Marshall’s most recent rebuild effort brought to you by Pete Whitlock, and Matthew Lucas and his talented crew at EveryAngle Construction. It’s a work of art.