Book Review: O. Winston Link: Life Along the Line: A Photographic Portrait of America's Last Great Steam Railroad
At last Abrams gives us a third helping of wonderful Link photos. The first book, 'Steam Steel & Stars' in 1987 introduced him to a wider audience and now he's firmly established as a great American photographer, something railroad fans have known for years. Of the three Abrams books I think this is the best because it is so comprehensive and also a first-class production.
Like Richard Steinheimer, another great railroad photographer, Link believed there was more to this kind of work than snapping a smoking wedge shaped consist powering along a track. Both of them creatively explored the engines in and out of use, employees who made it all happen and the places and towns along the track. Link took it further by creating remarkable night-time tableaus of steamers passing through towns and the countryside.
The book's 180 photos (twelve in color) are in five sections: 'Railroaders' looks at all sorts of Norfolk & Western employees; 'Iron Horses' covers the various units N&S used and Link chose this railroad because it was the last to use both steam and diesel; 'Side by Side' with trains on the mainline; 'In the Land of Plenty' has a lovely selection of photos of small towns, stations, passengers, stores and buildings in the N&S region. The last section: 'How it was done' is, I think, one of the strengths of the book. It's a detailed look at how Link worked, not just with cameras but how he took movies and did recordings.
The landscape book (just over 11.5 inches wide) is an excellent production. Printed with a 200 screen on a quality matt art paper. None of the photos bleed of the page edge and they all have extensive captions though I did find it slightly annoying that captions are only on every other spread even though nearly every page had space for them. The book has a fifty minute CD of Link's train recordings (and if you are buying a used copy of the book it's worth checking with the seller that the disc is included) which I thought was mildly interesting except for a quite stunning 2.14 minutes of a huge class Y pusher (N&S 2179) working a heavy goods train up a gradient in June 1958. To hear the pulsating roar of this unit straining away is incredible and there's a photo of the front of 2179 taken from the door of the caboose on the day of the recording.
Life along the line is a beautiful celebration of Winston Link's remarkable train photography.
O. Winston Link: Life Along the Line: A Photographic Portrait of America's Last Great Steam Railroad is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)
The three essential Winston Link titles.
The famous Link shot from August 2, 1956 and used on the back cover of the first Abrams Link book. On the right is the photo in the latest book, probably a second or two between the photos because on the left-hand one a plane is on the screen.
The front and back endpapers.
Contents spread.
A spread from the thirty-two page essay in the front of the book.
From the section on how Link worked.
From the section on how Link worked.
Each track on the CD has some notes.
Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.
The links below are affiliate links, which means I earn some commission from each purchase, but at no extra cost to you.
Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.cn
Comments
Concerning the August 2, 1956
Concerning the August 2, 1956 photo at the drive-in theater.
Close examination of the two images will show that they were taken from two different positions at the same time. Note you can see most of the car radio to the right of the girl's head in the right image and very little of it in the left image. Also, note the smoke trail over the locomotive... they are identical in the 2 images, so they were taken at the same time. Add to that, Link used "flash bulbs" which were one-time-use and would require a lot of time to replace in order to take a 2nd flash photo. Thus, one flash and two cameras produced the two images. There are several photos of Link and a helper standing behind an array of flash equipment and TWO cameras are in those scenes.
Also, note that the screen is blank in one of the images. A Drive-in Movie theater screen would not be bright enough to produce an image on the film Link was using. It would require a time exposure and that would produce a blurred image on the screen. Besides, the screen is highly reflective and any flash nearby would washout any image of the screen.
I figure the image of the plane was either taken directly from the movie film, maybe in the projection booth of the theater ("Here, hold the film up like this and I'll take a photo of some frames."), or possibly from an advertising poster for the movie. The plane was added to Link's famous photo in a darkroom process to produce the final print.
Link was not only a great photographer with camera and flash setups, but a master in the darkroom as well.
And a wonderful story teller in photos.
Add new comment