Hidden somewhere in rural France, this abandoned shoemaker’s workshop looks as if the craftsman simply closed the door one day and never returned. The room is still filled with old Singer sewing machines, heavy cast-iron equipment, hand tools and hundreds of wooden shoe lasts.

This was a traditional shoemaker’s workshop where shoes could be made, altered and repaired by hand. The large collection of lasts in different shapes and sizes allowed the shoemaker to work on many types of footwear, while the surviving machinery was used for sewing, shaping and finishing leather and soles.

Such equipment was typical of traditional French shoemaking before mass-produced footwear largely replaced small local workshops.