Burying Monkeys: A Photographic Journey through the Old Crow & Old Taylor Distilleries

Photograher Rhett L. Beck takes us on a journey through the ruins of the Old Crow and Old Taylor Distilleries in Millville, Kentucky. Describing his work as the "art of decay," Beck specializes in portraying the effect of nature on our built environment, and in the process he guides the viewer to see the unexpected beauty in the midst of abandoment, to feel the stories and the spirits in derelict places. As a result he expands the visual possibilites of our world.

But this book also documents a personal struggle for recovery and atonement, as Beck has returned to these scenes again and again to "bury the monkeys" that plague him. As such, the spaces pictured here possess immense spiritual significance for the artist in addition to their aesthetic value.

The book contains over 50 images of the distilleries, accompanied by captions by the artist ranging over both technical and personal details of how the images were captured and what they mean for him.

This book will appeal to those who appreciate fine art photography, who are in interested in the history of distilling and industrial history in general, and finally to those who want to share in a story of personal salvation attained through art.

"The photos in this collection attest to the power of ruins on the creative imagination. They are also, perhaps unintentionally, an elegy to America's industrial aspirations during the Gilded Age." From the Foreword by Richard Taylor