Over a period of eight years, Steve Riskind photographed four small businesses located in or near Paterson, New Jersey. These "artisan businesses" are small, rely on skilled crafts people, and all are family owned. They are a specialty textile firm, jewelry manufacturer, pipe organ builder and stained glass studio. Each chapter focuses on one of these businesses. Introductions to the chapters are based largely on Riskind's interviews with owners of the firms. In some cases additional research supplements the interviews.
Following each introductory essay are approximately 20 photographs taken at the business. The goal in taking the photographs was to capture the intensity of workers engaging with the materials they use. These are not posed pictures showing workers holding products and smiling at the camera. Rather they are images of skilled artisans in the process of creation.
Riskind, Steven J.: - Steve Riskind has an unusual and varied background. He brings to his work a deep knowledge of photography, first film, and then digital; many years of running a small business; and a love for things electronic and mechanical. This background gives him great empathy for his subjects' work, the ability to put them at ease, and the skills to capture their work in photographs. Photographer Steve Riskind's first job during high school and college was as an electronics technician at the University of Chicago's Argonne Cancer Research Hospital. After working briefly in organizational psychology, he pursued his interest in science and technology and moved into computer consulting. For over 25 years he owned a firm that developed custom database software used in finance, broadcasting, medicine, and the non-profit sector. More recently, Riskind has merged his technology skills with his early love for and training in photography. Riskind studied digital photography extensively at the International Center of Photography and then become an active portrait photographer. He is best known for his portraits of classical musicians, including pianists Richard Goode and Ignat Solzhenitsyn and violist Kim Kashkashian. He has extensively photographed food service training at the New Jersey Community FoodBank, including illustrating Doris Friedensohn's book "Cooking for Change." In addition, he continues to pursue a lifetime interest in photographing the industrial landscape. Riskind's work combines the aesthetic of black and white film photography with his love for the capabilities of digital photography. He lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey with his wife and a well-fed cat.
Scranton, Philip: - Philip Scranton is University Board of Governors Professor of History Emeritus, at Rutgers University. He directed the Hagley Museum & Library's Center for the History of Business, Technology and Society (1992-2012) and was Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly journal, Enterprise and Society (Oxford University Press, 2007-14). His publications include sixteen books and 90 scholarly articles and chapters. The most recent studies include Reimagining Business History (with Patrick Fridenson, 2013), The Emergence of Routines (co-edited with Daniel Raff, Oxford, 2017), and a research monograph, Enterprise, Organization and Technology in China: A Socialist Experiment: 1950-1975 (Palgrave, 2019).
