Covino Photographic Series
Dublin Core
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"I began photographing the slate industry, it methods, and its working people during the late sixties and early seventies by accident. On a Saturday afternoon, my car broke down next to the Evans pit, from which the sounds of Italian opera could be clearly heard. Looking over the edge, I could see a lone rockman shoveling rubbish, the radio in his lunch bucket playing the Saturday afternoon opera from the Metropolitan. I knew I should photograph there. My series of photographs of the old Evans Brothers quarry, owned by Rising and Nelson and run by foreman, Jim Covino, was completed over two years, detailing what I learned was one of the few remaining operations still using 'traditional' methods of extracting rock." (Neil Rappaport)
Neil Rappaport photographed at this one quarry almost everyday over the two years. When he started he had only been working as a photographer for three years. His first approach was to photograph to learn about the process so he started at the beginning, in the pit, and followed the stone through the final trimming of the roofing tiles. Gradually he began to get to know the workers, particularly Vince Covino, Jim's son and the pit boss, and by asking questions and always sharing his photographs with his subjects, he learned more about the process and ultimately more about the work. At this point he started to make portraits of the quarrymen, some in informal settings and some more formal. Then he took the time to make photographs of the industrial landscape, the machinery and tools, slate in its rawest form and as a finished product. And finally he returned to the process again with more understanding and a more knowledgeable eye. He refined this cyclical method of working in new environments throughout his thirty years photographing in Pawlet.
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