Tuesday, November 14, 2023
7:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom
Join Ken Rehor and Elrond Lawrence for a special program that examines the untold story of Richard Steinheimer and his professional photography. While his groundbreaking approach to railroad photography influenced generations of railfans and artists, what is less well-known is Steinheimer’s prolific professional career.
His railfan and professional photographic experiences heavily influenced one another throughout his life. As a teenager, Steinheimer’s train-watching led him to train photography, which in turn led him to photojournalism school. Stein’s initial career as a newspaper photojournalist inspired him to capture the human side of railroading. His transition into the nascent world of high-tech corporate photography opened a new universe of creativity. He not only photographed the emerging science of semiconductors but also invented many new photographic techniques and equipment. While he was documenting the formation of Silicon Valley and the birth of microprocessors, he was also capturing the end of a railroad era with articles in Trains magazine and his seminal book, “Backwoods Railroads of the West.”
In the third phase of his career, Stein merged his lifelong experiences in photography and trains to focus on the commercial side of railroading, fully embracing color slide film and an adventurous new style that nonetheless remained inherently Steinheimer. Lifelong devotees Rehor and Lawrence will explore Stein’s parallel tracks of his passions for railroads and creative photography.
This event is free.
This presentation will be recorded and be made available on our YouTube page, www.youtube.com/railphotoart
Early Gallium Arsenide LED, April 1969
Stein on assignment for Southern Pacific, Donner Pass 1990
Flashbulbs illuminate engines 484 and 487 as they simmer night away in Chama, New Mexico, on October 7, 1965. They’d made two turns up the four-percent grade to Cumbres and back that day. In the morning, they’d make another run up the grade and then continue east to Alamosa, Colorado. Photograph by Victor Hand, collection of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, Hand-DRGW-C08-23
DH 1529 on Cascade Wye at Lanesboro, Pennsylvania, on November 9, 1951. Photograph by David Mainey
Chris Walters, First Prize, black-and-white
Blair Kooistra, First Prize, color
Sunset on Santa Fe’s Needles District in the Mojave Desert, summer 1976, looking west to Amboy, Calif. Richard Steinheimer photo, Steinheimer-Burman-AG-Temp005