On View
Not on viewObject number2010.58
Steam Locomotive (605)
Artist
O. Winston Link
(American, 1914-2001)
Dateca. 1950-59, printed 1986
Mediumgelatin silver print
Dimensionsmat: 28 × 22 in. (71.1 × 55.9 cm)
sheet: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
image: 19 3/8 × 15 1/2 in. (49.2 × 39.4 cm)
sheet: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
image: 19 3/8 × 15 1/2 in. (49.2 × 39.4 cm)
Credit LineElisabeth Claire Lahti Fund
Exhibition History"A Legacy for Kalamazoo: Works Acquired through the Elisabeth Claire Lahti Fund, 1998 - 2012," KIA (Sept. 29, 2012 - Jan. 20, 2013).
Second Sight/Insight II, KIA, Ethel Denton Groos Gallery, January 10, 2015 - May 10, 2015.
"Light Works: A Century of Photography," KIA traveling exhibit. Nassau County Museum of Art, (Nov. 19, 2016 - Mar. 5, 2017).
"Framing Moments: Photography from KIA's Permanent Collection," KIA (Feb. 6 - May 16, 2021)Label TextThe 605 was one of six steam locomotives built in 1944 by the Norfolk and Western Railroad. By the late 1950s, engines such as this were completely replaced by diesel powered counterparts. O. Winston Link, a commercial photographer, who had a love for trains since boyhood, decided to document the end of this great chapter in American transportation. Between 1955 and 1960, he made more than 2,400 images related to the company and the region it served. His images are all highly controlled like stage sets, with special lighting and carefully arranged props that just happened to be giant train cars. Link was also a pioneer in nighttime photography. He valued the mystery and drama inherent in darkness, as well as its usefulness as a natural black backdrop against which steam plumed wondrously white. Link also made audio recordings of trains that were as popular as his photographs. Today, there is a O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, Virginia that displays and houses his work in the former passenger station of the N & W Railroad.
[Framing Moments Exhibition, 2021]
