Seamstress in a textile mill, Chattanooga, 1987.
This picture represents a major disappointment that almost put me out of business.
It was 1987, and I had a nice studio in an industrial area of Chattanooga. I had been on my own for eleven years, and although I wasn't setting the world on fire, I was making a living. I had made contact with an executive of a large textile company who had big plans for an advertising campaign built around my photographs.
We made a trip to a knitting mill in Georgia, where I spent the day photographing, then. . .nothing. In a few days I learned that the company had been sold to another company which had plans that didn't include me. I had counted on spending most of the summer on that project, and now I was left holding the bag without enough work lined up to sustain us.
I closed the studio, which I could no longer afford, let my assistant go, and moved the business to the basement of my home in a close-in suburb. Somehow, we made it through the summer, and business began to pick up again in the fall. It was a difficult and disappointing time and I did some serious praying, but we survived.
Such is the life of a small independent businessman.
The photo: A Hasselblad medium format camera with (probably) the Zeiss 50mm wide angle lens and Fujichrome film.
Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.
Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia
are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal
address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943
Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how
you would like your book inscribed.
Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
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