Brazen Ritual

PHOTOGRAPHER'S JOURNAL:  While I was far away at the silk mill, I received word that back in Brass Valley, the brass mill was again casting billets.  I shot this last Tuesday. Willy has just removed one of the distributer cups that spreads the flow of liquid brass into the form below. In a moment, he'll pick it up and rest it inside the edge of the barrel.  With any movement the cups give off sparks.  

I've shot this many times, and the ritual is familiar, and each time it's performed I get to try again to perfect a proven angle or find some new ones during the key moments when the two billets are pulled and set to cool. The ritual is always the same and I keep shooting it because the moments are so filled with the unexpected. 

I was back at the foundry yesterday, but they have again shut down the furnace for a few weeks, and all faces are glum. I will go back again as soon as I learn they are casting. There are more silk mill images to follow, but I couldn't resist putting the orange chiaroscuro of the brass mill beside the B&W chiaroscuro of yesterday's shot in the silk mill.