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March 8, 2008
i generally have nice photographic encounters
not another f*cking blog!
yesterday, while shooting the demolition of the Ward Bread Bakery smokestack (which, along with its water tower, are my Prospect Heights neighborhood icons), i was approached by an employee of Gateway Demolition, the contractor doing the demolition of the Ward Bakery. he talked about his new optic gear which enabled him to tell the brand of cigarette one of the workers was smoking on his break atop the smokestack, i talked about my trying to capture some of the history of the 'hood before his company dismantles it, and then we got into a short but interesting discussion about the history of the Ward Bakery.he was pretty knowledgeable about Wards, how it was built in 1905 (or is it 1910? 1911?) and was where sliced bread was introduced. i asked him what is was like inside the old bakery. he told me about ovens large enough that one could drive a truck around inside of them and how the oven floors were on a giant rotisserie to evenly bake thousands of loaves at a time. he told me that it's very cold inside right now, like an icebox, with lots of peeling paint and beautiful light.
Posted by amy at March 8, 2008 10:15 AM