Schaffers Crossing Roundhouse, O. Winston Link -- WEEKLY DISCUSSION # 3

<p>It's that time again, and it would appear to be my turn.</p>

<p>As some of you know, I love documentary photography. The Great Depression is an era that fascinates me, and I was tempted to present something from Dorothea Lange or Jack Delano. However, I think one of the largest and most heroic efforts in documentary photography was the work in the 1950's by O. Winston Link. What photo to pick? It's truly hard to pick one, but I'll lead off with his "Shaffers Crossing Roundhouse," 1958, because I think it is so representative of his lighting and subject matter:</p>

<p>http://www.danzigergallery.com/artists/owinston-link/11</p>

<p>First a bit of the back-story. Link was an industrial and advertising photographer with a passion for the railroads, steam power in particular. While in Virginia, he embarked on an ambitious personal project, self-funded, to document the last years of the steam locomotives in the United States, specifically on the Norfolk and Western Railroad. His work is permanently exhibited in the O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, VA.</p>

<p>I have an interesting connection to the photographer. The father of a dear friend of mine worked on the Norfolk and Western in Roanoke, and it was his frequently his job to "make sure Mr. Link gets whatever he needs." Link and the railroad had a mutual interest. Both wanted to photograph the last days of steam power, something of which this particular railroad was very proud.</p>

<p>So every year Mr. Link would come rolling in on a train, with an assistant and numerous wooden crates of elaborate lighting equipment. He would then set up elaborate night-time photos fired off with scores of precisely timed flash bulbs strung together with miles of wire all over the landscape. Each shot took a great deal of planning and setup. The railroad had its work to do too. They had to pose the trains for him!</p>

<p>Link's style is unmistakable. Besides the fact that almost every one of his photos is taken at night and has a steam locomotive in it, his lighting is very hard and stark. Even his commercial photography took on this style. But what I really love about Link's work is that he sought not just to document these magnificent machines, but more importantly the culture surrounding them. His photos capture an era and show us how steam locomotives were such an important, yet ubiquitous, part of everyday life. His intended audience was not so much the people of his time, but rather all of us today -- folks like me who were born just a couple of years after all the steam locomotives were decommissioned.</p>

<p>The photo I linked depicts service being performed on a relatively "modern" steam locomotive. Note the complex lighting link used. The main light source is from camera right, giving the photo a strong, hard industrial feel as it lights the worker's back and casts a shadow on the engine. But the form of the engine are shown via reflections of a carefully placed light, camera left. Then wafts of steam are illuminated from a smaller light between engines, yielding separation between the foreground and background. Other images will show frequent use of rim lighting, with flashes carefully concealed behind elements of the scene.</p>

<p>Link's images were done with a 4x5 view camera with apparently a very small aperture. Considering the films of the day, he was obviously cranking a lot of light. Of course the contrast would suggest he also push-processed his film. His stunning images were quite a technical feat.</p>

<p>I invite you all to tour the exhibit from the image I linked, so that you can see more examples of Link's work. You may especially enjoy his double-exposure, "Ghost Train," which pretty much summarizes the urgency of his project.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Interesting high-contrast lighting. Great sense of period. Details become a bit obscure on the far right side of the frame.</p>

<p>Everything you say Sarah ... interesting link to the whole set of photos. Photographic version of Saturday Post [ or whatever it was called ].</p>

<p>I did an essay on Winston Link for a course I did a couple of years ago. His persistence in getting the effect he wanted is astonishing, also the fact that he was able to include people in pretty much all the shots. His images especially Swimming Pool, Welch, West Virginia, 1958, have a surreal quality to them. There was a film, Trains that Pass in the Night, about his project, and another, The Photographer, His Wife and her Lover, about his later life and the theft of his images.</p>

<p>I'm a huge fan of Link. I love documentary photography and Link's work is impeccable.</p>

<p>I'm another Link fan.</p>

<p>I recall a story, probably from one of his books, when he first approached the railroad execs. He showed them an assortment of prints to help "sell" his project. One was shoved back saying something to the effect of "don't take any more like this, no black smoke." The point was that black smoke means inefficient combustion, and what railroad wants to advertise inefficient operation?</p>

 

<p>I really appreciate a lot of the narratives in the shots, the kids playing in the water below the bridge with the train going by, the old town in the foreground with the steam of the train rising in the background, but I wonder if the photographic approach and style is overwhelming the humanity a bit. The high contrast lighting and stark approach to composition gives it a bit of an otherworldly and even a quite pristine sense of being. I'm not feeling the grit, the humanness, and the reality as much as in other documentary work I've come to love. Instead there's a cold calculation coming through the work to me.</p>

<p>The photos seem dead, drained of life by the harsh light and push processing. With the railway images this leaves me on the outside, where I got bored fast. With the people in his images, such as the swimmers around the pool, the the disconnect becomes interesting in as much as the scene which is one which should read as convivial, conveys the swimmer as being as lifeless as the train in the background. I admire the technical achievement and the singularity of the style but the images leave me cold.</p>

<p>Mr. Link is for me a photographer of the material more than the society or human presence. The workman or engineman that is attending to the light of the bullet nose steam engine is portrayed too harshly, as are the engines in the photo. I admit I do not know all of his work, but I feel his stark flashbulb lighting (he used enormous amounts of flashbulbs) with blown highlights and deep shadows is interesting for a few images, but one gets a bit weary of such a homogenous approach to his subjects. On the other hand, a certain approach and consistency is common to many artists, although it is often applied to quite varied subjects.</p>

<p>I long to see more continuous and subtle grey toned images of these steel monsters that were so tied to the discovery and growth of North America (and no doubt, Russia, Europe, India, Africa and elsewhere) and are an important part of our heritage. Admittedly, that may be harder to achieve with the black, soot and steel of steam engines, just as shooting in London smog or heavy overcast weather tends also to reduce the tonal scale available (I know that London smog is now pretty much history, so my example may also be history).</p>

<p>I love 'em. I think Link may have been the utltimate railfan and am amazed he didn't blow himself up with all those bulbs going off at once. For most of us trains are always in the background unless they are just in our way. Steam locomotives were maybe the ultimate in sound and fury and I can appreciate the connection or as someone said the disconnect between the world moving by in the background while we are doing anything else. Link's work reminds me of where I got started and why I keep going back to it.</p>

<p>Rick H.</p>

<p>This is a photographer I've always loved, ever since <em>Modern Photography</em> did a beautiful portfolio of his work. When I was very young, there were still a few steam locos in service in my part of the world, and I have vivid memories of riding the "Phoebe Snow" through New Jersey farmlands (yes, they exist). Link's images always evoke that time and place as well as any I've seen. It is, IMO, very difficult to combine nostalgia and art without becoming sentimental or mawkish. I think Link's images achieve this; of course, others will believe the contrary.</p>

<p>Anecdote: In 1994, shortly after my wife and I first moved to our current house, the Blue Mountain Line ran a steam locomotive on a spur that ran about half a mile from where we live. It was just a tourist trip, but the size of the audience was unbelievable. At every grade crossing, people lined up ten deep to watch the little Baldwin 2-4-0 (I think it was) going by, pulling its three cars full of folks like me. Cameras? You bet.</p>

<p>Before the train left, Paula and I were working in the garden while the locomotive idled. Across the little park came this "Chuff! Chuff!" that must have been common 50 years before. Tragically, the train never ran again. The engineer--the only employee of the line familiar with steam traction--was killed by a falling crane in a yard accident. Link's photos connect us to theose days and those other reaities.</p>

<p>I'm also a long time admirer of Link's photos. His flash work is amazing to say the least. He invented much of his own gear, including a proprietary sync box to simultaneously fire (sometimes hundreds ) of flash bulbs.These weren't the "little based", amateur type flash bulbs some of us are familiar with. These were extremely powerful bulbs. Which explains how you can shoot at F16 at night!<br /> From what I've read. Link used newly introduced (in 1954) Kodak Tri-X Pan. It's original ASA was 200. I also read that he would "carefully process his film to minimize contrast". The article didn't elaborate further. But it didn't mention "pushing" per se either.</p>

<p>Link solved the problem of subject contrast by mainly shooting his black subjects at night. If he shot black ,grimy machines sunlit in B&W. How would he expose the scene? He'd have to shoot on cloudy days, and not include any brightly lit, light colored subjects. Otherwise the machines he was idealizing , would have been black and detail-less.<br /> Some of his shots required rope bridges be built across streams, and were strung with his lighting gear. These elaborate scenes sometimes took days to light and execute onto film. He would string miles of cables, some of which would be severed by passing trains moments after they fired!</p>

<p>In my ever so humble opinion, he was a genius on many levels.</p>

<p>Impressive production values. Often feeling hyper-real.</p>

<p>Thanks, Sarah. Link has always been one of my favorites -- the B&W, the large images with great detail, and the black-on-black of the steam locomotives at night. I especially like the drive-in shot -- so much detail to see and the contrast of the parked cars against the engine barreling along the tracks. (Smithsonian's "the making of" article here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/The_Big_Picture.html)</p>

<p>Steam engines are fun to shoot. I've got a couple of nice images from a trip on the Durango and Silverton, but Union Pacific still runs a few of the larger main-line steam locomotives during the summers. I understand they are in the process of rebuilding one of the Big Boys. Now, *that* would be a worthwhile subject (especially if done in Link's style).</p>

<p> </p>

<p>An interesting choice, Sarah, thanks. My first encounter with Link's work was <a href="http://www.briansholis.com/wp-content/uploads/Link_01.jpg">this image</a>. When I first saw it, the cinematic quality of it put me in mind of Gregory Crewdson and I wondered if Crewdson owed some of his inspiration to Link.</p>

<p>I think "Shaffers Crossing Roundhouse", like much of Link's work, is also cinematic. That harsh lighting we refer to cannot help but lend a strong sense of the dramatic to what we are seeing. It is documentary work of a sort, but the intentional and staged nature of it seems to take it into the realm of "benign" propaganda. It idealizes a mode of transportation and the era it represented. Because of the "real" settings and the "real" workers who occasionally take part in the photographs, Link's work still retains some sense of the documentary (in comparison to Crewdson's staged dramas). But it seems a bit less than "true" documentary work in comparison to what we're used to seeing from Lange, Delano, and Russell Lee.</p>

<p>This is not to belittle what Link did. Considering the technology of his time, an immense amount of prep work and pre-visualization were required. His strong eye and technical skills were/are evident. And staged or not, he has successfully created a romantic record of the steam rail era that does have a certain Saturday Evening Post quality to it it (as JC Uknz alluded to). I could easily see the photo of Mr. and Mrs. Pope watching "the last steam train" as a nostalgic magazine cover.</p>

<p>On the level of gut reaction, I love scrolling through the images. They give me a strong sense of a long gone era that I'm not quite old enough to have any familiarity with. Nostalgic and idealized or not, there is a lot to be said for imagery that draws forth feeling and a sense of time and place. Although my photographic taste tends to run toward the darker or the enigmatic, a steady diet of it is wearying. Not every documentary has to be about human misery, squalor, and cultural stupidity. I was particularly struck by "Hawksbill Creek Swimming Hole". I imagine a humid summer night, splashing in the creek as the train rolls past. It brought back a memory of summer road trips I took with my parents when I was 6 or 7. I remember a two lane highway going over a small creek in Michigan. I looked down and saw people swimming. We stayed at motel in a small town nearby. It was a hot day and, upon my urging, we drove the short distance back to the creek and spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and playing on a sand bar. Funny how Link's photographs can call forth that distant memory.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I am struck by the huge amount of collaboration and direction that must have been required to execute each photograph. Everyone from the models in the photo to the folks who physically set up the lighting, and the RR execs had to be all coordinated. I suppose it must be the same today in advertising photography, though I imagine all that to be much less of and industry in the 1950's than today with more of those responsibilities falling to the photographer.<br>

The photos themselves are not ones that "move" me, however I have a huge appreciation for the skill and planning that went into their creation. They have an advertorial quality that I tend to take for granted on first look. I did especially like <strong>NW 1103 Hot Shot east bound at Iaeger, West Virginia 1956</strong>. I found the inclusion of cars, planes (on the screen) and train interesting as a composition.</p>

<p>I've studied Link for about seven years now, going so far as to call Thomas Garvey on the phone and meeting with David Plowden several times in Chicago. I should mention that in winter, trains at night is my number photo subject. From what I've been able to learn, initially Link was more wanting to preserve a record of small town life after WW2. He saw things rapidly changing and saw small town life disappearing. While visiting towns he came to think that it was the steam railroads that were at the core of many towns. This was true as at that time railroads were the number one employer in the country. It took a lot of manpower to run steam engines and maintain tracks. By the time Link got around to visualizing his project, there was only one Class 1 railroad left using steam--the N&W. This was because they were a major coal hauler and they used coal fired engines to show support to their biggest customers. At least, as long as was economically feasible.</p>

<p>Some have criticized Link's lighting as "harsh." This is something I can talk about with first hand experience. Flash heads are a very small light source in relation to the subject, and as portrait photographers know the smaller the light source, the harsher the look. The only way Link could have made the light softer was to make softboxes as large as his subject. This simply is not practical. I once found a set of engines parked along a snow bank, and fired about six flash at the snow so it reflected back on the engines. The light was quite soft when I did this. Link did not have that option, and really there are few places that I do either.</p>

<p>Link used a Dagor 90mm lens for most of his shots, and I think a Kodak Commercial Ektar 165mm (if I remember right.) Film was Kodak ISO 100. According to David Plowden, Link mostly shot around f11. How much light was that? Assuming Sunny 16, it was one stop under daylight. That's a lot! I have two separate flash systems that I use, depending on what I am lighting. One is x8 Nikon SB-25 flash, the other is x8 White Lightning X3200 monolights with battery packs. That's something like 10,000ws! With that much flash I can shot ISO 400 & f8. With snow on the ground, double that to ISO 400 and f11. Fifty years ago Link was still able to put out four times a much light as that. Incredible! Mostly I use my Nikon D7100 with the SB-25 flash and shoot ISO 800 & f5. I also shoot trains with my Chamonix 045n using HP5 and a Schneider Super Angulon 90mm f5.6 lens. I use up to x10 CyberSync triggers. I think my radio triggers are really the biggest advantage I have over Link--no cables to lay or short out.</p>

<p>Link was a commercial photographer, so his N&W photos show that thinking. He arranged people (all volunteers!) into little "scenes from small town life". None of it was spontaneous, of course. It would take him all day to lay cables and calculate flash exposure using GN only. Much of his eqiupment he built himself. He didn't take the train down to N&W country, he actually drove his car pulling a big U-haul trailer full of gear. He did have a letter from the president of the railroad which instructed all N&W employees to give him full cooperation. At that time trains were not dispatched by radio but rather CTC. It was not possible to contact train crews while they were on the fly. There is a story that an unscheduled train once went by Link's set up, and when he popped the flash the engineer nearly had a heart attack. He thought the boiler had exploded!</p>

<p>I've taken a few photos for railroads with their cooperation such as UP, BNSF, but mostly I only get cooperation from the local railroads. My favorite is the Dakota & Iowa! Their operations manager will actually call me with a tip about a train running at night. The train crews all know me by name. Link worked back East, in summer, which gave him a lot of advantages. I have little else but grain elevators and cows along my tracks. I also shoot mostly in winter rather than summer. In winter it gets dark at 5 PM instead of 10 PM, there are no bugs, and the snow on the ground doubles the power of my lights. The downside is there are no people out & about when it's ten below zero. I truly enjoy my time along the tracks. Hearing the train approach out in the darkness is one of the best parts! The brutal weather sometimes causes equipment failure, but all in all I've learned to cope. As for me, I dress in polar expedition clothing from Mountain Hardwear, Outdoor Research, and Fjallraven as I roam the Dakota prairies in the dead of winter. It's exciting! There is a handfull of us in the U.S. that do this, and several in Bavaria that photo the steam trains there. (I've met most of these people.)</p>

<p>David Plowden's latest book was "Requiem for Steam." I met with him and had him sign it for me. I had a special request. I asked him to sign it, "David Plowden, (O.W. Link's assistant.)" Plowden got a big laugh out of that and did it for me. The book is one of my treasures.</p>

<p>Kent in SD.<br /> (aka "Flash Foamer")</p><div></div>

<p>"Link solved the problem of subject contrast by mainly shooting his black subjects at night. If he shot black ,grimy machines sunlit in B&W. How would he expose the scene?"</p>

<p>According to Thomas Garver, the main reason Link shot at night was to get rid of a lot of clutter in the scene. Rail yards etc. generally have a bunch of junk lying around. At night, if you don't want something in your shot, you simply don't allow light on it. Another thing I've learned is during the day, you pretty much have to take the direction of light (sun) you are given. At night, you have total control! This is what appeals most to me. David Plowden told me Link was very, very secretive about his methods and techniques. Steam trains really aren't that high a contrast, especially for b&w film. I've shot the UP 3985 and UP 844 using 4x5 and HP5 in daylight plenty of times. One other thing. Most people aren't aware, but Link did shoot a fair number of scenes in the daytime, such as "Old Maude Bows." His daytime shots really aren't any more special than those from anybody else's. He also experimented with color. During the day he seemed to prefer the Rolleiflex for a lot of his work.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p><div></div>

<p>I agree that the steam locomotive is one of the most fascinating photographic subjects. I will not go into here the interesting relatively recent developments regarding not only Norfolk & Western steam locomotives (611, 1218, and 2156) but also Union Pacific's decision to return a "Big Boy" 4-8-8-4 to operation. But in the photographic / aesthetic area, note the significance of the facade. Although N&W did have some of the most modern and efficient American steam locomotives, I'd take issue with your statement, "The photo I linked depicts service being performed on a relatively 'modern' steam locomotive." The main subject, N&W 127, is an older locomotive, from 1923. It has had its guts covered in streamlining, and looks a lot like N&W's more modern locomotives, but underneath, it is an older design. Did it 'fool' the public back in the day, as it 'fooled' the OP? My bet is yes.</p>

<div></div>

<p>On the technical side I noticed the shot of the gear and in particular the reflectors holding upwards of half a dozen flashbulbs ....I started my flash photography with flash bulbs and a Speed Graphic 5x4 and learnt about Guide Numbers and in my case for a large transport plane fired off more than one bulb until I got the required light ... the plane was cooperatively sitting on the tarmac :-) Basically it is quite simple but horribly involved when you take it to the level that Mr Link did.</p><div></div>

<p>Sarah, <br>

Until now, I had never heard of Link. That's what so great about this thread! Those photos are amazing.</p>

<p>I also like the documentary photos of the Depression but am not familiar with many photographers. The only one I really know anything about is Frances Benjamin Johnston, who shot many photographs of Virginia and North Carolina. Guess I'm going to have to do some Google searches on others! </p>

<p>Great discussion, everyone! I'm learning quite a lot, especially from you RR enthusiasts! Part of the reason I chose Link was that I wanted to discuss the technical aspects of his work, which I find fascinating. Besides that, I've about talked the earlier documentary work during WWII and the great depression to death. Jack Delano is actually my favorite Depression-era documentary photographer, and some of my favorite works of his are his railroad worker portraits, for instance:</p>

<p>http://drx.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451bdba69e201347fb6e35f970c-popup<br>

http://drx.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451bdba69e201347fac0be3970c-popup<br>

http://drx.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451bdba69e20133ec6bbd8e970b-popup<br>

... and others</p>

<p>And of course these photos got me to thinking about Link -- different style, and actually different subject matter and approach. Even so...</p>

<p>Fred observed, and others agreed, that his lighting is cold and stark and not really about the people. I agree; however, the people seem to be essential props used in almost every scene. I'm reminded of architectural renderings from that era (my dad being an architect), in which people and cars were included to show how a building (usually a public building) was to be used. Often the figures were rudimentary and stylized, but they gave the building perspective and context.</p>

<p>Really Link appeared to be doing the same thing, essentially using people as props to illustrate how steam locomotives were an essential element in people's lives. I, too, would have enjoyed a bit more detail of the workers. Regardless, some of his faceless human props do evoke certain feelings or memories. I remember a few night-time rendezvouses (sp?) at a whistle stop with my kids. The locomotive would appear in the distance, pointing its headlight around, blowing its horns, and come rumbling up, as sleepy travelers would climb out of their cars to board the beast. Everyone was silhouetted in harsh light. The scene was very mysterious and other-worldly. My kids would jump with excitement. Even though these experiences were with modern trains, Link's images still evoke those memories, as I insert myself and my children into his scenes.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Steve Levine raised the issue of shooting a black locomotive against a bright sky, vs. shooting a flash-nuked black locomotive against a black sky. That makes total sense! I know how frustrated I have been photographing my black cat, and I've discovered that the only way to do it is to photograph the reflections off her shiny fur when she is against a dark/black background. </p>

<p>While this might not have been Link's primary reason for shooting at night by flash, it is surely a contributing factor. Perhaps this is less a factor with B&W photography, as one can wash out the sky a bit. It's also possible to use a red filter to greatly darken the sky in contrast with the gray tones of the locomotive.</p>

<p>Anyway, my understanding is similar to Kent's, that Link wanted total control of the light, essentially turning the great outdoors into a giant studio. Still, it's plain to see that daytime shooting renders a locomotive, with all its interesting details, a featureless blob:</p>

<p>http://www.carolinaarts.com/owlink2-999.jpeg</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Steve Gubin commented that Link's work is cinematic and somewhat propagandized. (I might use the word idealized, but I agree.) Although in my own work I attempt to make myself (and my influence) as invisible as possible, I can also appreciate the interpretive work done by others.</p>

<p>Even when photography isn't interpretive, the selection of subject matter often is. Discussions have sometimes cropped up on PN about the differing impressions one would have of Japanese internment during WWII based on the photography of Lange, Miyatake, and Adams. It's absolutely true! Each had a different story to tell. So context is critical in the examination of any documentary material, and I don't feel that a staged photo is necessarily less authentic than an unstaged one. I suppose it depends on who is telling the story.</p>

<p>Steve, it's interesting you mention "Hawksbill Creek Swimming Hole." That's one of my favorite of Link's. Take a look at the water splashes: They are perfectly frozen. His scores of flash bulbs fired in perfect synchrony to take that shot. What makes it one of my favorites, though, is that the kids in the creek do appear to be genuinely having fun. I would contrast that with this photo of a train passing a home, with the child waving out the window and the tired mom wondering, "When is this guy going to take his photo, break down all this crazy photography equipment, and let us get to bed?"...</p>

<p>http://www.danzigergallery.com/artists/owinston-link/8</p>

<p>I wouldn't have even considered that one a keeper, in large part because the kid is nearly invisible against the busy interior of the home!</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I've admired Link's work since I was a kid, and, along with Weegee, he was a strong influence on my use of flash to achieve an obvious flash-y look.</p>

<p>But over time my perception of the subtext has evolved/devolved from regarding the photo narratives as Norman Rockwellian cinematic propaganda to reading into them a David Lynch style thin veneer over looming darkness.</p>

<p>Compare, or perhaps contrast, Link's railroad vision with the cinematography of the opening scene in <a href="

Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"</em></a>. The cinematography, like the novel itself, challenges our romanticized notions of the old West against the ominous undercurrent.</p>