I really enjoy images of artisans photographed in the context of their work space. I could just stare and stare at all the vernacular details in this photo of an Italian shoemaker/leather worker. I have been making a lot of leather bags and wallets lately and I love seeing traditional leather work spaces like this. When we were walking around the Pantheon last summer I spied a more modern version of such a shop and I just stared for a long time at all his tools and his beautiful products (I just looked for it on google and it turns out luxury-porn blogger Michael Williams did a nice little feature on the same shop, and the Roman craftsman's name was Federico Polidori).
Here is what the outside of the shop in Sorano (pictured above) looked like:
These photographs are from architect Norman F. Carver Jr.'s excellent book Italian Hilltowns
(Carver is a well-known architect in my hometown of Kalamazoo and like
the recently-deceased Balthazar Korab, a damn fine photographer). My parents gave me a copy of Italian Hilltowns before last summer and I highly recommend it to anyone planning a trip.
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