Creativity & Covid

Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, our creative spirit is alive and well. In late June, we sent out a call for submissions to our members, asking how you were faring during this time. More than seventy of you responded by sending us nearly 200 images from around the world, along with heartfelt descriptions of your time so far.

We expanded the fall 2020 issue of Railroad Heritage to an all-time high of eighty-four pages, dedicating forty-eight of those pages to sharing your submissions. Even then, we ran out of room, and so we also created a web gallery for additional content.

To see the results, you can browse our web gallery and order a copy of the magazine if you do not already have one. To everyone who submitted work for our consideration, all of us at the Center send you our great thanks. It has been a privilege and an inspiration to see your works and read your words.

Railroad Heritage, Fall 2020: Awards, Cartoons, Creativity & Covid

While 2020 has brought unimaginable challenges, our members have remained deeply engaged in railroad photography and art. They share samples of their recent work in this issue’s cover story, “Creativity & Covid,” edited by Alexander Benjamin Craghead. From contemporary photography and painting to personal archiving projects and even creative nonfiction, their work is inspirational, offering ample proof that our creative spirit is alive and well. Further proof of that comes from the winners of our 2020 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards, which we also present in this issue along with comments from the judges. Rounding out the feature articles is a look back at New Haven Railroad cartoons that highlight travel difficulties of World War II. They come from the Archives and Special Collections of the University of Connecticut Library in a story by archivist Laura Smith.

In our columns, Arjan den Boer looks at the precise work of Pierre Fix-Masseau in his “Art of the Railway Poster.” Adrienne Evans shares the second of her two-part overview about the history and care of glass plate negatives in “Out of the Archives.” And Hailey Paige previews our next online conference, Virtual Conversations: Fall Edition, whose presenters will share railway photography and art from around the world.

$7.95, 84 pages, color and b/w

The Railroad Photography of Donald W. Furler

Donald W. Furler helped write the rules of railroad action photography. From taking engine pictures as a teenager in the early 1930s, he joined an elite group of railroad photographers who created a new aesthetic to portray the drama of steam railroading in motion. From the late 1930s through the 1950s, he dedicated nearly all of this free time to documenting operations throughout the northeastern United States and Canada, using a succession of ever-larger cameras for maximum detail and clarity. The Furler Collection is a cornerstone of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s archive, and we are proud to present this monograph.

Scott Lothes, the Center’s president and executive director, wrote the text and selected the photographs. His lead essay examines Furler’s life and photography, his relationship with the first editors of Trains magazine, and the changing railroad landscape of the Northeast. Maps by David Styffe present those railroads as they appeared in 1946 at the height of Furler’s activity and as they are today. Alan G. Furler, the photographer’s son, provides a poignant and personal Afterword.

$60 plus $5 for domestic shipping, hardcover, 10×11 inches, 216 pages, 200 duotone photographs

International shipping is available; please inquire by email at info [at] railphoto-art.org

ANNOUNCEMENT: Fall conference

Due to the ongoing concerns and challenges surrounding the global health situation, we are rescheduling Conversations Northeast at the University of Connecticut from September 19, 2020, to a Saturday to be determined in Fall 2021.

We are now planning to offer an online conference on Saturday, September 19. Registrations will open on June 29. Stay tuned for details.

We hope to “see” you virtually on September 19, and in-person next fall in Storrs, Connecticut.

Erie Lackawanna east of New Milford, Pennsylvania, on October 18, 1974. Photograph by John F. Bjorklund, Bjorklund-54-27-24

Railroad Heritage, Summer 2020: Maps, Utah, Alban, Edmonson

Explore the art of railway and transit maps in the Summer 2020 issue’s cover story by Justin Franz in Railroad Heritage. Three additional feature articles await you. Mark W. Hemphill looks at the Denver & Rio Grande Western’s main line in Utah through the lenses of two talented photographers: George L. Beam and Otto C. Perry. Lee Alban shares how he discovered railroads and rediscovered painting in his second career as a railroad artist. And R.G. Edmonson showcases BNSF in the Texas Panhandle in this installment of “The Railroad and the Art of Place.” In our columns, Arjan den Boer looks at posters advertising station cafés in France in his “Art of the Railway Poster.” Adrienne Evans shares the first of her two-part overview about the history and care of glass plate negatives in “Out of the Archives.” And Hailey Paige chronicles the resounding success of our first-ever online conference, Virtual Conversations 2020, with more than 400 attendees from all over the world.

$7.95, 72 pages, color and b/w