More AJC Print Room...with thoughts

So I had mentioned in my first post of some of these print room photos that I was having a hard time tying some story into these images, something that takes the viewer from A to B. I spoke with my teacher, Photoshop Grand Wizard Kevin Ames, about this and he brought to my attention something I had considered but never really given much credence to. A sort of unexpected narrative had emerged from my visits to the presses and talking to some of the guys that work there. It is the story of an industry that is slowly becoming more and more obsolete in the ever-expanding shadow of the internet age, particularly with the introduction of the iPad. A lot of the guys in that plant seem to have a long and storied career working in print rooms - no one with less than 20 years under their belt. However, I get the impression that most of them simply don't see their line of work existing with the prominence that it once did, or even does today, for very much longer. Whenever they would ask me why I was shooting photos in there, before I could even reply, someone would half-jokingly say something to the tune of "the death of the print industry?" One guy even told me that he swore he would never buy a computer because he knew they would eventually bring about the demise of his employment - that is, until he finally bought one and now he can't get off of it.

The presses don't employ as many people as they used to. The storage room for the paper is significantly emptier. The actual newspaper continues to get smaller and smaller. All these things seem to point to the inevitably that the very medium through which dispersion of information first became possible, arguably the most important invention of all time - the print press - will no longer be a modern medium within the next half century, and along with it, the workers this industry employs will too become a thing of the past.

Maybe I'm reading too far into the plight of the working class here, or even the whole obsolescence thing, but while working on this project I was reminded of a photo documentary I saw recently. It was by an Atlanta photographer by the name of Mark Maio, who, for 16 years, documented grain workers in New York up until the last day when technological advancements had rendered their jobs unnecessary, and the port in which they spent their whole lives working in and literally living under the shadow of was no longer their place of employment. I don't know if I'm really going to spend the next 16 years documenting the AJC printing press, but Kevin called what I'm working on a "prologue," which I think is an apt description. Perhaps no one today will think much of a bunch of photos of these print towers and the men that operate them. Forty years from now, however, when everyone will be reading their daily news off pieces of rolled up electronic circuitry that represent a sheet of paper but hold a gajillion times more information than any measly Sunday rag ever did - then maybe, assuming I make it to my 74th birthday, I'll be able to look back at some of these photos and really consider their relevance.