David T. Mainey

David T. Mainey was born on October 5, 1935 in Ridgewood, New Jersey. When he was 12 years old, he received a 616 Brownie Box camera as a Christmas present, igniting a lifelong passion for photography. David himself describes the years of 1948-1950 as the formative period of his photographic activity. Photographs from this period featured a mix of subjects reflecting family and trains.

The years 1950 to 1952 saw Mainey gaining shooting experience with a Kodak 620 folding camera, a loan from his father. Working with this camera enabled Mainey to master aperture, speed, and focus, increasing the quality and quantity of his photographic output. In his own words, however, “framing and aesthetic considerations were yet to evolve.”

The period between 1951 to 1957 marked the time when Mainey became acquainted with fellow photographer (and future CRP&A collection donor), Donald W. Furler. Residing just a few blocks away from Mainey in Glen Rock, New Jersey, Furler welcomed him into his group of friends, who included Bob Collins and other railfan photographers. Together, the young men traveled to many locations in Pennsylvania and Maryland to photograph Delaware & Hudson, Balimore & Ohio, Central Vermont, New York Central, Reading, Delaware. Lackawanna & Western, and, of course, Erie trains—the mainline ran a block away from Mainey’s house and was literally adjacent to Furlers’s front yard.

Influenced by Furler and Collins’ photographic practices, Mainey purchased a used Kodak 616 folding camera and a used Kodak Retina I 35mm camera around this time. While the Kodak Retina I conveniently allowed Mainey to use Kodachrome film, it had a bent frame and produced fuzzy photographs when used at larger apertures. Furler shot exclusively with a 5 x 7 Speed Graphic at the time, and in fall of 1952, he loaned Mainey a 4 x 5 Speed Graphic, which supplanted the Kodak 616. These updates in equipment led to further improvement in Mainey’s photograph quality. In addition, Mainey also mimicked his friends’ subject and framing choices, which included standard action wedge shots, often with elevation, and engine portraits. Going-away shots, as well as extreme, low angle, or unusual views were not typically in the young photographers’ repertoires at this point. In 1955, Mainey opted to purchase a used Leica camera and retired the Retina I, as his skills and desire for better color slides increased.

After graduating from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1957, Mainey was employed in a B&O “Technical Trainees” program for two years. This afforded him the opportunity to travel throughout the B&O system and take photographs. Most of his work-day photography was done discreetly at appropriate moments.  Weekend opportunities allowed him more freedom to photograph the B&O as he pleased.  All Trainees had system-wide passes that were good on freight trains and locomotives, so he got to photograph a number of times from diesel cabs, and a couple of times on steam runs.

In the following decades, Mainey was less active as a photographer, focusing instead on his career and family life. He married in April of 1959 and started a family shortly thereafter. He left the B&O in 1961, and joined IBM. He relocated several times for the company; first from Baltimore to Hagerstown, MD, then to Poughkeepsie, NY, finally settling down in Putnam County, NY. With a young family to care for, Mainey limited his rail photography to the nearby Penn Central/Conrail Hudson and Harlem lines.

The mid-1970s through the mid-1990s brought about some changes in Mainey’s photographic interests. Growing more individualistic during this time, Mainey’s work still centered railroads as a subject, but his focus shifted to more landscape-oriented photographs such as railroad tracks cutting through stunning scenery. His photographs also became more humanist during this period, and now included the workers who dedicated their lives to the railroad. With his wife Carol working, and his children old enough to be more independent, Mainey again turned to photography, specifically on Conrail’s River Line (the former New York Central West Shore Line) and the New Haven and Maybrook Lines. Moving on to the 1980’s and 1990’s, Mainey became an even more prolific photographer, purchasing two Nikon F3s and a Mamiya 645. This is also the time period during which he began photographing more non-rail subjects.

From the mid-1990s to the present, Mainey has continued to photograph more non-rail subjects, which include his family and nature. Mainey retired from IBM in 1991, but continued for a few years as a sub-contractor. He also kept busy working as a picture framer, then in box office and IT positions for the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, a local music and arts organization up until 2014. While his photographic work has shifted to more diverse subject matter, Mainey still shoots the occasional railroad photograph.