The Red Wagon

The Red Wagon

So Much Depends is a photograph that has troubled me from the moment I first saw it on the contact sheet. When I photographed this wagon I was thinking nostalgia and antiques, but when I first saw the actual image it made me sad. Where is the little boy who played with this wagon? Why was it abandoned out in the middle of a field?

William Carlos Williams' poem The Red Wheelbarrow comes to mind when I view this photograph. The poem reads:

so much depends upon

a red wheel barrow

glazed with rain water

beside the white chickens

For a farmer, a wheelbarrow is an indispensable tool. For a boy growing up on a farm, a wagon is an ever-present companion. Break the wheelbarrow or break the wagon and the world changes. Sometimes such simple things that we take for granted are what we really depend on the most.

Nikon F-801 w. Nikkor 35 f/1.4; Ilford XP2 Film