John Carlson: Over The Road Truck Driver

Last summer, I spent 12 days traveling with John in his truck. We went from Madison, WI to New Jersey to Central California and back. John was gracious enough to participate in my ongoing personal project documenting over the road truck drivers. He travels with his cat Kota for 5-6 weeks stretches and returns home to Minneapolis for 5-6 days before heading out again. This slideshow is my first attempt at combining an audio interview with images. It lets you here his voice and his story in his own words. I think I will do more of these.

Mikey & Keith - Over The Road Team Truck Drivers

Mikey and Keith stopped in Madison for breakfast after picking up a military fuel truck bound for California. Keith and I have had a few near misses. He's been in the area before, but at times that I wasn't available. I'm happy that it worked out this time, and they let me make some photographs after breakfast.

They have been team driving for over a year, and not long ago started driving for Bear Leather Transport.   A relatively new start-up by Brian and Amos, who have appeared in a previous post.  Driving as a team has the advantage of running the truck around the clock. One drives while the other takes his required 10 hour break to sleep.   They can cover more ground,  make more deliveries, and share expenses of the truck as well as earnings.    They literally stay out on the road full time without a permanent address.   Riding along with them is Mikey's rescue pit bull named Justice. A sweet and happy guy who has taken to the road quite well.

I appreciate them taking the time to stop and have breakfast before heading back out on the road.  It was great to finally meet.

  

Exedra - Italian Baroque Furniture Manufacturer

While photographing Riccado and his brother in their workshop Sicilia Intarsi, Riccardo offered to take me to visit Exedra, a family-owned baroque style furniture maker the next day.   Baroque furniture is an old style that came out of the Baroque era from the 1700 to 1800's.  It's a furniture style preserved by Exedra in the shadow of Mt. Etna in Belpasso, Italy.  Though much of the process is automated, the detailed carving and upholstery is still done by hand. 

Furniture makers carve the intricate baroque details on pieces of wood that will be used to make a chair.

Wood carving tools and shavings on a workbench in the Exedra workshop.

Furniture makers at their individual workbenches work on carving and shaping pieces of a baroque chair.

A furniture maker works on carving out the find details of a baroque chair at his workbench.

After details are carved out, the pieces are sanded and buffed using a rotary sander made of strips of cotton and sandpaper.

A baroque chair leg is sanded smooth with a handheld rotary sander.    Much time is sent to get the finish just right.

Assembled chair backs are glued and clamped together awaiting further assembly.

Chair backs are fitted with additional embellishment by a factory worker taking great pains to insure a perfect fit.

Assembled and painted chair frames waiting to be upholstered.

Upholsterer cuts fabric by hand the fabric that will be used to cover a chair.

Sewing and final touches of the upholstery fabric are done by hand.

Upholstery thread unwinds from it's spindle while the upholster sews the fabric at his sewing machine.

Upholsterer's tool drawer.

Fabric is trimmed after being secured to chair.

Upholsterer secures fabric to chair using a power stapler.

Handmade piping laying in the seat of a chair awaits installation by an upholsterer.

Studio Le Nid Ceramic Workshop - Paternò, Sicily

After visiting Exedra furniture factory,  Riccardo took me to the ceramic workshop of Le Nid Studio in rural Paternò with Mt. Etna serving as a snow-capped backdrop.  Founded by renowned ceramic artist, Barbaro Messina and now directed by his sons Vincenzo and Fillipo, I was given the tour of the facility and Barbaro's second floor gallery featuring an abundance of his creations.   Barbaro's many works consists of glazed slabs of Mt. Etna lava rock with depictions of the Sicilian physical and social landscape.

When we arrived, they were just putting the finishing touches on a set of glazed cut lava stone city markers for the communities surrounding the Mt. Etna UNESCO World Heritage Site, while artists were working on hand painted ceramic pieces depicting the Stations of the Cross.

Vincenzo Messina, director of Studio Le Nid brushes on a protective coating of lacquer on glazed cut lava stone pieces of lava rock signs to placed in the communities surrounding the Mt. Etna UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Vincenzo Messina, director of Studio Le Nid brushes on a protective coating of lacquer on glazed cut lava stone pieces of lava rock signs to placed in the communities surrounding the Mt. Etna UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Vincenzo Messina, director of Studio Le Nid brushes on a protective coating of lacquer on the glazed cut lava stone pieces of lava rock signs to placed in the communities surrounding the Mt. Etna UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Studio Le Nid artist paints a design on a ceramic tile to be used in a Stations of the Cross installation.

Le Nid Studio artist work on hand painting ceramic pieces to be used in a Stations of the Cross installation. 

Le Nid Studio artists' tools and paints.

Small souvenir pieces of cut lava stone from Mt. Etna with a ceramic veneer and hand-painted design.

Barbaro Messina talks about the process of creating his cut lava stone and ceramic glazed artwork in his Le Nid upstairs studio and gallery.

Barbaro Messina shows off his cut lava stone and ceramic glazed artwork depicting the Sicilian landscape in his Le Nid upstairs studio and gallery.

Sicilia Intarsi - Sicilian Inlay Company

While visiting Catania, I had the good fortune of finding a very nice apartment in the historic center of the city.  Tucked behind the apartment building, the owner Riccardo and his brother Giovanni D'Antonne operate a wood inlay company called Sicilia Intarsi.   I spent some time in the workshop one afternoon to learn about and observe the art of wood inlay.

It's comprised of designing and cutting multiple layers of wood veneer and putting the design together like a puzzle.   Once it is put together, masking tape is used to hold in place before it is glued and finished.  They use a brandishing technique on some pieces by dipping the edges of pieces in a pan of heated lava granules from nearby Mt. Etna.   It's very detailed and painstaking work, and a bit meditative as they work quietly together at the workbench.  Riccardo tells me they are one of the few companies left that don't use computerized laser cutting technology.  They still cut on a table saw guided by hand.

Riccardo and Giovanni assemble inlay projects on the central worktable in their workshop Sicilia Intarsi.

Giovanni manually guides the table saw with precision, cutting multiple layers of wood veneer. Sicilia Intarsi is one of the few inlay companies that does not use computerized laser cutting technologies.

A sampling of the tools used to create an inlay piece. 

Riccardo inspects the inventory of completed samples in a cabinet finished with their own inlay design, while Giovanni warms his hands on a cool winter day in their unheated workshop.

Small finished inlay wood items in the samples cabinets used to supplement their online catalog. 

Inlay pieces are grouped on the worktable after being burnished in a pan of heated lava granules.

Giovanni places a single piece in an inlay panel.

Riccardo trims a corner of an inlay panel border while Giovanni uses masking tape to hold his project in place.

Riccardo uses a hammer and razor blade to trim the corner of a panel border.

Inlay pieces are dipped in a pan of heated lava granules to burnish the edges for creative effect.

Riccardo tapes pieces of a panel while Giovanni burnishes individual pieces in a pan if heated lava granules.

Burnished inlay pieces with some residue of lava granules.

Riccardo treats me to Sicilian hospitality in the showroom featuring finished products using Sicilia Intarsi's inlay work. He is pouring a glass of Cantine Intorcia Vino Alla Mandorla.  A sweet almond wine of Sicily.

Jerry - Over The Road Trucker

Jerry hails from Southern Missouri and lives just off the highway I was traveling on my way to visit my family for Thanksgiving.   He's an independent owner/operator who travels with his very loyal (and well-fed) companion Izzy, a miniature pinscher.

Chad - Over The Road Trucker

I met Chad at his company's terminal outside of East Saint Louis since I was passing through the area on my way to visit family in Missouri for Thanksgiving.  He had expressed an interest in being part of my 2015 calendar project, so I decided make the meeting happen.   I arrived as the sun was setting and knew I had a short window of time before I lost all available light.   I got my single speed-lite set up and went to work.   Traditionally, I convert the images from my ongoing trucker project to black and white, but I really like the saturated colors in these images.  I'm making an exception this time.

David - Over The Road Trucker

Finally met David in person after communicating for a couple of years.  He runs primarily regional out of Upstate New York, but this time he was coming to the Chicago area for a night so I drove down from Madison to meet up with him.   It was the first cold snap of the winter which was a little uncomfortable for making portraits, but the crisp clear morning made for some nice light.   David is a great guy.   Laughs a lot and he was quite comfortable in front of the camera.

Gene - Over The Road (Super) Trucker

While in St. Louis for daycare portraits, my trucker friend Gene stopped in over the weekend for a visit.    Before he left, he decided to jump up on the hood of his truck for a few portraits.