(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dayton Daily News reporter, Steven Bennish, has written an exciting new photojournalism book called Scrappers. This book uses photographs to document how many unemployed individuals have turned to scrap metal theft in order to get by. Mr. Bennish became interested in this phenomenon during a 2011 project where he was doing research on stories regarding the loss of American manufacturing jobs.
The reason people have resorted to scrap metal theft are varied: some need money for drugs, others for survival or greed. Unfortunately, many communities such as Dayton, Ohio have experienced astronomical monetary loss when “scrappers” get bold and obtain metal from working structures. In this case the thieves caused $100,000 in damages when they removed a 700 pound metal shaft of Dayton’s flood gates. The book Scrappers concentrates mostly on individuals who use metal theft as their source of survival. To further authenticate the book, Steven Bennish used Kodak film because the company was barely surviving at the time and it seemed an appropriate way to document the struggling lives of the Americans who have lost their manufacturing jobs.
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