Steam passenger train on Germany’s Harz Mountain Narrow Gauge Railway in 2008. Photo by Olaf Haensch.
Olaf Haensch, Munich, Germany, is an editor for Modelleisenbahner (Model Railroader), a market-leading German railroad magazine. Born in 1975, he began his photographic career at the young age of 10. Haensch has photographed trains in many European countries as well as China and the United States, but his most extensive photographic project to date has concerned the regular steam trains in the Harz Mountains of his native Germany. Working almost exclusively at night with elaborate synchronized flash setups, this portfolio took five years to produce and recently led to his new book (2010) NachtZüge (Night Trains), which has sold 6,000 copies in its first four months. In 2010, he appeared on and helped produce an episode of Tracks Ahead!, the PBS television series on railroading.