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.
Media contact: Susannah Schouweiler, Director of Marketing and Communications, susannah@umn.edu Weisman Art Museum Will Reopen on Feb. 11, 2021 WAM’s Upcoming Artist-Led Programs Tackle Questions of Truth, Culture, and Power this Election Season Weisman Art Museum Will Reopen on October 1, 2020 Harriet Bart: Abracadabra and Other Forms of Protection Alexis Rockman: The Great Lakes Cycle Rose and Melvin Smith: Remembering Rondo Baggage Claims Many Visions, Many Versions: Art from Indigenous Communities in India Director Lyndel King Announces Retirement in…
Reviewing The Human Touch exhibit at WAM, there were a lot of pieces that caught my eye. There was one in particular that I felt, as Historian for the Black Student Union, was very accurate in depicting our generation as black students. Especially black students on a predominantly white campus. This piece was created by Dawoud Bey and he called it, Sharmaine, Vincente, Joseph, Andre and Charlie. Image courtesy of RBC Wealth Management Bey was a street photographer who “felt an…
Eugène Atget Men’s Fashions, 1925 Gold-toned gelatin silver print, 9 x 6 3/4 in. About the Art Eugène Atget photographed the dynamic changes he witnessed in Paris from the late 1800s to the mid-1920s. In this photograph from 1925, he focused his camera on a store-front display window of a men’s clothing store. In it we can see trousers and suits draped on various mannequins. The glass of the window reflects the buildings and the street that faces the…
