You read my thoughts last week on the state of the newspaper industry (“The wrong way to save newspapers” and “More newspaper gore) and how corporate bosses’ attempts to squeeze blood out of the turnip can only hasten newspapers’ demise.

Well, today I discovered the simply stunning Flickr page of Martin Gee, a veteran designer and illustrator at the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News. He put the page together as his way of dealing with the massive layoffs there. It is a visual representation of the human toll those massive cuts are taking—and how they are making the Mercury News look more like a warehouse than a functioning newspaper. The photos show a cavernous stillness that literally took my breath away.

SIDEBAR: Note that David Butler, editor of the Mercury News was among those quoted in the “More newspaper gore” post last week. END SIDEBAR

Unfortunately, as you’ll read in this story from Editor & Publisher, irony knows no bounds: The man who so poignantly documented the way the layoffs were eviscerating the Mercury News can now add a photo of his own empty desk to his blog.

But I’m sure it was “no reflection” on Gee. I’m sure it’s “totally an economic matter.”

Right?