Mid-twentieth century Brooklyn-native, O. Winston Link was a commercial photographer and engineer who became well known for his complex images of factory and industrial plant interiors. For Link, the steam railroad was a vital ingredient to “the good life” in America, an essential part of the fabric of our lives.
Link’s photographs featured in the Carlson Gallery exhibition, Trains that Passed in the Night: Railroad Photographs of O. Winston Link, showcase the final years of steam railroading on the Norfolk & Western Railway, the last major railroad in America to operate exclusively with steam power. They are regarded as one of the best records of this long vanished type of locomotion, yet the broad appeal of Link’s photographs is derived not only from the images of the steam locomotives themselves, but also from the way in which their inclusion expresses the photographer’s deeply felt respect for the quality of life that the steam railroad reflected and supported for so many years in the United States.
The exhibition Trains that Passed in the Night: Railroad Photographs of O. Winston Link is organized by Thomas H. Garver and produced in collaboration with the Center for Railroad Photography & Art (www.railphoto-art.org). Copyright © W. Conway Link.
