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July 1941. "Heads of beef cattle. Hormel meat-packing plant, Austin, Minnesota." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
I don't really know what the colors should really be, but here is my version.
Sometimes blissful ignorance is the best route.
Head cheese*. Usually made from a pig's head, but cows are used as well. Head cheese sandwiches were a regular item in my brown bag school lunches, probably because it was cheap. I wonder if it is still available?
*A meat jelly cold cut made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig, or less commonly a sheep or cow, and often set in aspic.
This is one of the uhhhh, most difficult?, more powerful?, more unusual? images I have seen on Shorpy in 10 years or so. John Vachon really left us some amazing photography. I've become a big fan of his because of what I've seen on Shorpy. I wish there was a large format book of his work.
My guess is this particular photo will not be popping up again in colorized form.
I thought it was a circus carousel melted after a fire. Scary.
And I wish I could. It's very sad.
It would be far less spooky if the eyeballs were not still in the heads.
I think I may be getting closer to solving this riddle.
There are SOOOOO many barbacoa tacos just waiting to be cooked, right there!
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