The Marlborough Foundry, owned and operated by four generations of the Nye family, has produced custom-made aluminum objects since 1953. The workers half-jokingly describe their job as "the world's second oldest profession" -- only slight hyperbole as metal objects were first cast in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Thailand, and India over 5,000 years ago. Many were functional (weapons, plows, pots) but interestingly, the oldest known object is a copper frog cast in Mesopotamia in 3,200 BCE.

In 2014, I spent ten weeks photographing the workers and their environment -- the skill, pride, focus and hard work; the dust and steam illuminated by the morning light; the molten aluminum flowing like a demon into molds that resemble medieval torture devices; the gloves that have permanently assumed the shape of the owner's hands; the tools and materials that looked the same 100 years ago and will look the same 100 years from now.