Toward the end of Spring 2020, we at the Center wondered how our members were faring during the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. Stay-at-home orders, remote work, and limited travel all had brought change at different paces to different places on the globe, but everyone had felt the impact of this crisis in some way. Was anyone out there still making railroad photographs and art? And if so, what, and how? We sent out a call for submissions in late June, uncertain what we would receive.
The response was overwhelming. In the space of just a few weeks, we received nearly 200 images from more than seventy people around the world. Many members sent us heartfelt descriptions of their time so far, of taking shelter at home, of social distancing in remote places with a camera, of their experience as railway workers who, as essential workers, had to keep working, or who due to the economic downturn no longer could.
We dedicated forty-eight pages of the fall 2020 issue of Railroad Heritage to sharing the results, but even then, we ran out of room. We wanted to share all of our submissions, however, and so this Flickr gallery was born. We’ve posted one image from every submission, along with a selection of the words each photographer or artist shared with us.
From all of us at the Center, it has been a privilege and an inspiration to see your works and read your words.
