O. Winston Link Exhibition at Robert Mann (NYC) Feb 3

[johnmsanderson]

Suffice to say I won't be missing this, and will probably be there opening night... Possibly my favorite large format photographer and I think he was incredibly influential, as the press release states.

The only other place, to my knowledge, where one can see a gallery of his work is in Roanoke at the Link Museum.

http://www.robertmann.com/exhibitions/upcoming.html

[36cm2]

This looks great. Definitely going.

Leo

[Sanjay Sen]

Wonderful! I will definitely go to this one. He is one of my favorites too. Thank you for posting this.

[William McEwen]

Is Link's ex-wife still in jail? Man, that was an amazing story. BTW, I read an old article about him, and he said the reason he shot the trains at night was because he could control the lighting. That the sun is never where you need it!

[Two23]

BTW, I read an old article about him, and he said the reason he shot the trains at night was because he could control the lighting. That the sun is never where you need it!

The other reason he stated was that if he didn't want something in the shot, he simply left it unlit. There's a lot of junk around railyards etc. Link started out just wanting to capture the small rural towns that were rapidly disappearing during the 1950s, more than the trains. He became entranced by the way the trains were interwoven into the towns. I talked to a guy named David Plowden and another guy in WI named Garvin who were his former assistants. They believe Link shot ISO 100 film and f8, sometimes f11. He shot two or three 4x5 Graphics at once, partly as a back up, and sometimes with a different lens. Link had a letter from the president of N&W RR giving him permission to photo where & what he wanted. I talked to Plowden last year about him. He said Link was very secretive and really wouldn't tell him much about how he did his photography. Few people know it, but Link also recorded the sounds of the steamers at night and release a couple of LP records. Those came out before the photos.

For the past four years the main thrust of my own photography has been trains at night. Almost all are diesels, of course, but I've also shot the Union Pacific 3985 three times moving at night. Also shot a few other steamers moving at night as well. They are harder to light than the diesels because the new engines have reflective paint. I have been shooting a Nikon D300 with f2.8 lenses. For lighting I have 12 CyberSync and x2 PW triggers. My main lights are x6 White Lighting X3200 (1340ws each), and x8 Nikon SB-28 flash. I have a Vagabond battery pack for each monolight and am replacing them with the new Vagabond lithium packs. I mostly photo trains at night in winter, when it can be as cold as 32 below zero. I like the stark feel of winter, and a BIG plus is the wall to wall snow cover doubles the power of my lights. I shoot at ISO 800 and f5.6 or f8. I have a ton of flash power, but Link's bulbs had to have put out three times as much yet! This is nearly inconceivable to me, and I am now fairly experienced. My goal is to shoot some 4x5 b&w of trains at night. My Copal shutters will work with the CyberSyncs--I've already tested. My method will be f5.6 and ISO 400 film pushed to 800, I think. I will also try f8 if the trains are close enough to my lights to nail that. I have now photo'd five different railroads and have plans for two more yet this winter. I've had the cover on Trains Magazine once, which was fun. THere are a handfull of us who regularly photo trains at night with flash, maybe 6 or so. Link would go crazy with the equipment I have (no cables!), and I would go crazy with a letter of authorization from a Class I railroad. I have received cooperation from BNSF, UP, CP, D&I, DME, NENE, and a couple of other small railroads in the past.

I really want to get to see one of the Link exhibitions, but it's difficult for me. I am planning on visiting NYC this year. I very rarely have been further east of Chicago. I am a Northern guy, definitely not an Easterner. I could be tempted East for the right shot. I too am entranced by trains in the night. The sound of a steam engine blowing the crossings sends chills down my spine.

I'll add a little more. N&W was the last Class I to switch from steam engines to diesel. One of the main reasons for that was their biggest customer was Peabody Coal. Steam engines require a lot of maintainance, water every 20 miles or so, and so on. They needed a lot of labor. When N&W converted to diesels about 1960, a LOT of jobs were lost in those small towns. Some of the rail lines themselves didn't survive either. There is another photographer of that period who was about as good as Link, up in New England. His name is Shaughnessy. He's still around, BTW, and has a nice book out now.
http://www.amazon.com/Call-Trains-Ra...6267036&sr=1-1


Kent in SD

[Jim Edmond]

Here's a photo of Link and Thomas Garver with some of the gear he used:
http://www.carolinaarts.com/owlink1-999.jpeg

[Dan Henderson]

I am a huge OWL fan also. If you ever find yourself near Roanoke, Virginia do not miss the Link museum downtown. They have a large collection of Link's photographs, along with some of his cameras and elaborate lighting equipment.

I was interested to read Two23's post about David Plowdon. I have met and taken a seminar with him, and am a semi-fan of his documentary photography, but never heard or made the connection between him and Link. Given his subject matter though, I am not surprised.

[al olson]

Here's a photo of Link and Thomas Garver with some of the gear he used:
http://www.carolinaarts.com/owlink1-999.jpeg

An awesome amount of equipment for that era. Note the three cartons of Sylvania No. 2 bulbs. It took a lot of them to feed those reflectors. This was not a cheap hobby.

Kent, I'd like to see some of your photos. Do you have a web site, or could you post a few? If they are digitals you could put them in the lounge. You have an impressive investment in flash gear as well.

[Mark Sampson]

Well, Winston Link was a successful industrial/annual report photographer in NYC so he was used to lighting big scenes. Using massive numbers of huge flashbulbs was standard practice in those days. George Eastman House had a Link show a couple of years ago with some of his cameras and lighting gear on display. I've done a fair amount of location lighting myself, and I'm in awe of what he accomplished and how much work it really was.

[johnmsanderson]

The other reason he stated was that if he didn't want something in the shot, he simply left it unlit. There's a lot of junk around railyards etc. Link started out just wanting to capture the small rural towns that were rapidly disappearing during the 1950s, more than the trains. He became entranced by the way the trains were interwoven into the towns. I talked to a guy named David Plowden and another guy in WI named Garvin who were his former assistants. They believe Link shot ISO 100 film and f8, sometimes f11. He shot two or three 4x5 Graphics at once, partly as a back up, and sometimes with a different lens. Link had a letter from the president of N&W RR giving him permission to photo where & what he wanted. I talked to Plowden last year about him. He said Link was very secretive and really wouldn't tell him much about how he did his photography. Few people know it, but Link also recorded the sounds of the steamers at night and release a couple of LP records. Those came out before the photos.

http://www.amazon.com/Call-Trains-Ra...6267036&sr=1-1


Kent in SD

I think Link's assistant was Thomas Garver, not Garvin. He wrote the text to "Last Steam Railroad in America". There's some deets in it about his process. He states Link used Kodak Super Panchro Press Type B 100 ISO film and Ektachrome for color, and primarily two lenses, a 5 1/4 and 3 5/8.

There's a 6 CD box set of Link's sound recordings. Some of which are in National Recording Registry.

http://shop.linkmuseum.org/_store/Di...?prodID=8_8015

Shaughnessy is great, too. But Link's images are more contextually aware. They stand not only as artistic and technical achievements but anthropological documents of how cities/towns were intertwined with the railroad. Prior to the interstate and automobile, this is a lot what the American landscape looked like for a good hundred years.