Perhaps this blog is getting too monochromatic... But on my quest for today's photo I walked across a car service shop and saw these greasy tools that hit home. My home was always avast of wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers and the like. It always felt so normal to have such objects at hand whenever needed, and though I didn't very often, my dad made extensive use of them outside on his precious motorcycles. These hard metal chunks from the mechanical world are indeed built for men, those with thick-skinned hands that aren't afraid to get dirty. A mechanic pries steel bolts off hard screws, and is concerned about getting the machine running, not whether he got grease on himself or is forming another callus. He has to be as firm and strong as the metal he is taming, or it will tame him.
As I stopped and lifted my camera, the mechanic saw me, smiled, nodded, and walked back into his office...
A mechanic shop is so universal. Like a kitchen. Mechanics as cooks have and organized messy space they work from the world over, where they can settle in, and in their own personal way, produce something beautiful for the world or simple fix something simple for their own pleasure.
ReplyDeleteI guess that is my attraction to your B/W kitchen photos. Ramen house, Sushi bar, mechanic shop. They talk about the people there, in a way they are a window to people's minds and the world they live in.