Three of a Kind: 2021 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards Program

Black-and-White, First Prize: Miško Kranjec.  Left: This Slovenian Railways Siemens Desiro EMU derailed when crossing over from the shop’s lead track onto the main line at the east throat of the Ljubljana North yard on April 5, 2004. The rescue team begins to re-rail the EMU while other workers contemplate how to tackle the damaged turnout. Middle: A Slovenian Railways welder cuts a damaged gondola car after a derailment during the night on one of the Kranj yard throat switches on August 3, 2017. Right: Workers dressed in hazmat gear tend to a derailed tank car that was transporting highly flammable jet fuel from Slovenia’s Adriatic Port of Koper to the Vienna International Airport on June 27, 2019.

THE 2021 JOHN E. GRUBER Creative Photography Awards Program received 149 submissions from 96 photographers representing 28 states and 9 countries. The judges were extremely impressed with the range of subject matter, storytelling, and craft by each photographer’s interpretation of this year’s theme: Three of a Kind. The panel of three judges narrowed their selections to those photographers who presented the most powerful and compelling visual stories that translated the theme into a memorable, emotive series of images. 

For this year’s contest, the judge’s blind review process focused on the quality of each group of three images and how each photograph contributed to a connected, consistent message to complete the series. The judges also felt the quantity of high-quality submissions warranted separate color and black-and-white categories for the winners.

The first-, second-, and third-prize winners in each category will receive cash prizes of $750, $500, and $250, respectively. Each photographer recognized in the “Judges Also Liked” category will receive a free one-year subscription to Railroad Heritage.

Color, First Place: Dennis Livesey.  Far from drab, New York City’s subway is colorful and vibrant, even at night, just like the city it serves. Left: A R-32 car Z train is seen pulling out of Marcy Avenue Station, on August 24, 2016. The dome is the former Williamsburg Saving Bank, which is now an event venue, and the Williamsburg Bridge is in the background. Middle: An R-160 car N or W train snakes through brand-new construction in Long Island City, New York, heading to 39 Avenue Station, on October 12, 2016. Right: An R-160 car Q train pulls out of the Coney Island-Stillwell Ave. Station and heads to 96th Street, Manhattan, on July 30, 2017.
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Night shift at the New Haven Railroad shops in New Haven, Connecticut. Left: Through a shop door, CDOT 6691—an F7 used in Shore Line East commuter service—rests just after midnight on June 19, 1992. Middle: Overhead lighting fixtures glare as three of Shore Line East’s fleet of New Haven-painted locomotives rest for the evening in New Haven, Connecticut, on June 19, 1992. Right: The circular gears of an overhead crane complete a composition featuring the rounded elements of an F7 nose inside the engine house at New Haven, Connecticut, on December 14, 1992.

Judges’ comments: The photographer invites the viewer to approach, enter, and almost touch the subject in this series of night images of a New Haven Railroad engine house. The bold, simple use of tones and composition punctuates and defines the shed’s spatial threshold in the first image, as well as the silhouetted form of the locomotive in the second. In the third, close-up image, the photographer deftly distilled the composition to the bare essentials of storytelling. The interior lighting, piercing the grainy, exhaust-filled space above, further captivated the judges to select this work for second prize.

The first model of the “TGV Atlantique” sits in a Paris yard in 2014.

Judges’ comments: These three images resonated with the judges for their memorable clarity, consistency of composition, and emotionally raw grittiness. The nose of a high-speed French TGV is the focal point of all three images, presented as a sublime set of warm tones where the resulting artwork takes on an almost anthropomorphic dimension. The judges noted the consistent use of silver and its luminosity set within a frame of charcoal and black, anchoring each image’s structure and defining the chiseled train’s shape. Windshield grime, smeared bugs, and dirt across each nose and windshield reminds the viewers of the 200-mile-per-hour runs these train sets endure each day..

Far from drab, the New York City’s subway is colorful and vibrant, even at night, just like the city it serves. Left: A R-32 car Z train is seen pulling out of Marcy Avenue Station, on August 24, 2016. The dome is the former Williamsburg Saving Bank, which is now an event venue, and the Williamsburg Bridge is in the background. Middle: An R-160 car N or W train snakes through brand-new construction in Long Island City, New York, heading to 39 Avenue Station, on October 12, 2016. Right: An R-160 car Q train pulls out of the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station and heads to 96th Street, Manhattan, on July 30, 2017.

Judges’ comments: Presented as a triptych, these three New York City transit images immediately captured the judges’ attention for their strong graphic composition, transformative use of light and color, and focus on context as a storytelling tool. The judges noted the photographer’s deliberate use of orange to calibrate the color palette for all three images: first as sunset glow, second as backlit construction netting, and third as subtly reflected in the roofs of two trains. Each image’s depth of detail—including passengers waiting on the platform in the first image, construction crane and scaffolding in the second image, and glossy night-on-the-town spirit of the third image—further helps express the integrated nature of the NYC transit system.

Left: Commuters wait at Rahway Station at dawn in Rahway, New Jersey, on January 16, 2019. Middle: CTA Roosevelt Station at dawn in Chicago, Illinois, on September 16, 2019. Right: Two westbound MTA trains pull into Woodside Station in New York City on November 5, 1998.

Judges’ comments: Waiting passengers, platforms, and trains encapsulate the story of this winning submission. Intrigued by the photographer’s use of time of day and season juxtaposed across a theater of personalities waiting for the next train, the judges noted this series delivers a fascinating story of urban commuting. The winter scene of bundled passengers looking toward an arriving predawn train to New York City chills the senses, while the foggy summer Chicago sunrise at the Roosevelt CTA Station reminds the viewer how just a silhouette and pose can speak volumes about people without ever showing their facial expressions. The third, autumn image reminds the viewer that multi-modal, bi-level transfer platforms offer yet again another unique image-making opportunity.

Left: During its final night of operation, the last old-school Santa Fe searchlight signal bridge in the Southwest stands in Riverside, California, as a BNSF intermodal train streaks by on the early morning of November 8, 2020. Middle: A BNSF worker cuts down the signal bridge in Riverside, California on the early morning of November 8, 2020. Right: The signal bridge rests on the BNSF main line in Riverside, California, on the early morning of November 8, 2020. Its replacement stands in the background.

Judges’ comments: As railroads continue to modernize their network signal systems, this series of three images elegantly depicts a changing of the guard. The judges admired this photographer’s ability to artfully capture the story of transition from veteran searchlight signals to new “Darth Vader” colorlight signals. The first image convincingly captures the “before” while foreshadowing the “new” lurking beyond the signal bridge. The scrapper’s torch highlights the second image, with the bridge again in the background. Perhaps most memorable, the third image portrays the fallen soldier with the upgraded system towering above. The judges also noted the photographer’s adept skill with ambient-light night photography in a variety of conditions.