Centuries of Art @ Your Library - An American Nocturne: The Steam Locomotive Photographs of O. Winston Link February 12, 2007

Photographer O. Winston Link began documenting the last mainline steam railroad in America, the Norfolk and Western, in 1955. By the time the N&W’s steam operations were terminated in 1960, Link had produced about 2,500 images. His most spectacular shots were taken at night because he had more control then. “I can’t move the sun, and it’s always in the wrong place, and I can’t even move the tracks, so I had to create my own environment through lighting,” he once said. Jeffrey W. Allison, VMFA Paul Mellon Collections Educator discusses Link’s passion for the trains and the people along their paths, which drew him repeatedly to Virginia. Using the photograph, Hot Shot Eastbound at the Iaeger Drive In, Iaeger, West Virginia, 1956, we will explore the technical virtuosity that Link employed in his most famous photograph.