Candy

'Candy' collage by Paul Vallance

For this collage I've used a photograph 'Candy worker' taken circa 1925 by the great American documentary photographer Lewis Hine. I love this image. I found it in a book 'Women at work' which features 153 of Hines photographs of women doing humdrum work-typists, telephonists, mill and garment workers and the like. In most of the photographs the faces of the women aren't visible, their heads are downcast watching over machinery. The 'candy worker' is different, she returns the cameras gaze. It's a haunting image. The expression on her face seems a bit forlorn, and what was she thinking? 'Why the heck does this guy want to take a photograph of me'?
I find old photographs strangely melancholic.  We'll never know what her name was or how many years she spent working in the candy factory, or what those chocolates tasted like. I hope she had a long happy life.