The Tools They Use

For those of you who don't know, I'm a guinea pig for a new class called "French & American Values Through Photography"  Its an awesome class for sure, I love it, and the professor is great.  For our assignments we get to go take pictures and "recreate" old famous photographers in a way. I don't really know how to describe it, but basicially we are copying a theme that a famous photographer used and creating a photo essay on said theme.  Our first assignment was "Small Trades" based on Eugene Atget's work.  

First off I owe a thanks to all those who helped out, including those not pictured, I very much appreciate ya'll. Second, the class focuses a lot on reading photographs without the text, so aside from this there isn't much there, just remember the point of an essay is to make a point and I'm sure you can all figure it out. :)  So, here it is, Tools of the Trade, Enjoy!

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When I thought "small trades" I saw the people in the background who don't get noticed. But I thought a few people probably thought that, so I went deeper and thought about how we do notice the people in back, but we don't see who they are, all we see is what they do. The tools they use.

Caretakers, be they doctors, dentists, nurses, or even geriatricians have something in common. We love what they do, but we don't know them. We see them when we are in pain, or because we have to; through that mask all we can see is the tools they use.

Where would our world be without the person on the other side of the computer or telephone?  We dread calling tech support and expect secretaries to answer our every question. Sure it may seem like easy work talking on a phone all day, or sitting behind a desk answering questions; but do we even hear their voice half the time? Or do we look at just the tools they use?

Maybe one of the most thankless jobs beside parenting... cleaning. We might notice the spotless tile, or the crumb-less floor but we certainly don't get up at 3:30 in the morning to come thank the ones responsible, More noticeable are the few mistakes, a pile of crumbs the vacuum left, a spill the mop only swept the top off, or window streak left from a rag... the failures of the tools they use.