Ghost Train-Freight, Norfolk, Virginia
Artist
O. Winston Link
(American, 1914-2001)
CultureAmerican
Date1955
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 15 7/16 × 19 7/16 in. (39.2 × 49.4 cm)
Overall, Support: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Overall, Support: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated by the artist in pencil on the verso of the print. Artist's Studio stamp on the verso of the print.
Credit LineGift of Susan and David Goode
Object number2022.31.35
On View
Not on viewLabel TextO. Winston Link American (1914-2001) GHOST TRAIN-FREIGHT Norfolk, Virginia, 1955 L2004.11.70 This photograph, like its companion image, GHOST TRAIN-PASSENGER (see object L2005.1), was made the evening of September 2, near the N&W's Bridge 5, which crossed the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River. Link first made a three-minute time exposure in order to include the huge Reeve Avenue electrical generating station of the Virginia Electric Power Company, which was too far away to light with flashbulbs. For the second exposure, he fired the flashbulbs to capture this A class locomotive enroute on the Main Line to Crewe, Roanoke, and points west with merchandise. For almost 30 years he regarded these photographs as failures, but reconsidered them when one of the first museum exhibitions of his N&W photographs, at the Chrysler Museum of Art, was titled "Ghost Trains." These two "ghost train" photographs became the cover images for the catalogue published by the Chrysler Museum. Edited By: DS Approved By: MHM Approval Date: 07/25/2005ProvenanceRobert Mann Gallery to Susan and David Goode to CMA.Exhibition History"Norfolk and Western Railway Photographs by O. Winston Link," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., July 1 - December 31, 2005. Published ReferencesGhost Trains: Railroad Photographs of the 1950s (Norfolk: Chrysler Museum, 1983). This booklet accompanied the exhibition of Link's works at the Chysler. It includes some of Link's recordings on an 8" 33 RPM and data on all the photos. Night Tick by O. Winston Link: Photographs of the Norfolk and Western Railway, 1955-60 (London: The Photographers' Gallery, 1983) Tim Hansley and O. Winston Link, Stream, Steel, and Stars: America's Last Steam Railroad (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987) Anthony Korner, "The Night Owl," Artforum 27, no. 27, no. 9 (May 1989): 141-146 O. Winston Link and Thomas H. Garver, The Last Steam Railroad in America, (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995)
