Engineer Joe Maxwell in his workshop
As a society we almost always associate backstreet businesses with producing substandard products, but this isn’t always the case. In fact the backstreet businesses of our towns and villages are often the home of what remains of our once proud manafacturing base. Its people Joe, I particularly like to photograph, people who are still making and producing things with their own hands.
It being a Saturday nothing much was going on and and as I passed the open door to Joe’s backstreet factory/workshop I saw he was there. He kindly let me take these portraits of him. Joe is the cousin of James my neighbour who restores the vintage motorcycles, so being mechanically minded obviously runs in their family. In a workshop stacked with equipment and machines from another era, bearing names of their manufacturers all of whom have long since disappeared, Joe rebuilds engines, makes new frames for motorcycles and according to his website also has a hand in designing and fabricating sub-sea excavation equipment.
Portrait taken using DLSR and available light only (mixture fluorescent lighting and daylight). Joe is resting against a jig he has made to help him weld custom motorcycle frames more easily.
More portraits of real people living in Southwest Scotland can be viewed on my main website.
All Rights Reserved
© 2012 Chris Frear Butterfield
Polite Notice:
I guard my copyright. Please do not use this image without asking permission. To do so is theft.
Ruraleye 