Monday, January 4, 2010

BRITAIN: NEW DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY Inside The Steel Mill By John Watts-Robertson At GAIA Photos


Men are at work in one of the last hand-rolled steel mills in Britain.

Photo © John Watts-Robertson All Rights Reserved - Follow Me On Twitter

UK: Claws Of Steel is a feature story by the UK's John Watts-Robertson (in collaboration with Bob Caddick) now appearing on Gaia Photos.

As photojournalist John Watts-Robertson explains, "Bill Pinchers stands with a group of his workmates – tough looking men, waiting for a red hot bar of steel to make its way towards them inside one of the last hand-rolled steel mills in Britain. Outside, the Black Country weather is doing its worst with heavy rain being driven almost horizontally by a cold autumn wind."

Further, Robertson tells us, "Eventually the steel will be formed into strips shaped to make Victorian style hand rails, horseshoes, lawn mower blades, window sections and even miniature railway tracks. These are exported all over the world and Operations Manager John Legg jokes that they can’t make the metal window sections fast enough to keep up with the demand. Wars in distant lands bring an unexpected bonus in sales of building products it seems."

John Watts-Robertson visited Ettingshall, Wolverhampton where many of the old ‘metal bashing’ factories were once prolific in his photo essay UK: Claws Of Steel, now appearing on Gaia Photos, a new international photography source of nearly 60 photojournalists from around the world whose mission is to promote quality and diversity in documentary photography.

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