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Motivation and inspiration for creating Silent Workplace
While driving thousands of miles throughout Indiana, Lynn and I couldn’t help seeing hundreds of empty storefronts, factories, and other various closed-up businesses. Their haunting presence reminded me of my family’s gift store in Lafayette, my grandparents’ café and my Uncle Conrad’s bakery in Fowler, my Uncle Harold’s drive-in in Goshen, as well as the massive National Homes and Magnavox plants where I worked at as a draftsman many years ago. Those businesses had once all thrived, but were now all defunct. Some of the buildings they occupied acquired new tenants, some become perpetually vacant, and others were razed. So many places that buzzed with economic activity—now forever silent.
After realizing the extent of businesses from Indiana’s enterprising past that had disappeared and would likely be forgotten, I decided to photograph empty commercial structures in imminent danger of also being lost from our memories, as well as from our landscapes. Small-town general stores to big-city factories—all these had been once been vital to so many Hoosiers. But, what were their names, what did they make, what did they sell, what did they offer to supply? Very few of us know the answers anymore. Yet, they provided opportunities for vast numbers for goods, services, and steady incomes. Because of this, each deserved a final portrait as my own personal homage.
Silent Workplace - $22.00
8.5" x 10" trade paperback, 144 pages, ISBN 978-0-9745186-4-0
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