On Books
Over the next several months, I want to talk about books. I have some thoughts about photo books in general, and also wish to share with you some favorite books that have inspired my own photography. Books are the perfect showcase for photography.
David Plowden has spend decades photographing the vanishing remnants of America’s rich past with a poet’s eye. Although Plowden is perhaps best know for his railroad photography, he has published over twenty books on everything from bridges, to barns, to tugboats; things that were once a familiar part of the American landscape. Published in 2007, Vanishing Point: Fifty Years of Photography is a perfect summation of his life’s work and is a highly recommended introduction to Plowden’s vision.
In 2010, he published Requiem for Steam. This book celebrates the steam locomotive, and mourns an era in railroad history that came to an end in 1960.
The book opens with a long essay by Plowden, telling the story of distances traveled, run-down hotels in isolated railroad towns; days and nights haunting the engine houses and rail yards photographing the last of steam railroading. What we sense in the photographs is confirmed by his words: Plowden loved his subject, and was committed to it. As he describes his last ride in the cab of a steam locomotive, the sense of loss is palpable.
“I climbed up into the cab and sat there in complete solitude for several hours listening to the sounds I knew so well grow fainter and fainter. I kept glancing at the needle on the steam pressure gauge. Each time, the needle had dropped a little further until it finally pointed to zero. I stayed for a few more minutes, unable to say a final farewell.” – David Plowden
My favorite picture in the book is not of a locomotive or a long ago demolished station. It is a portrait of Ray H. Birkhead, an agent for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. He has taken his glasses off and is looking directly into the camera. The wall behind him is stained, and a bare light bulb hangs from the ceiling. The picture was taken on his last day on the job before retiring. I love this picture because ultimately, this story is not about iron, but about the flesh and blood that built and maintained, operated and loved the “iron horses” that would soon be cut up and sent to the scrap yard.
Mr Birkhead retired from the railroad after 60 years of service, in the final days of steam.
Edd Fuller – Text Copyright 2021
He signed on in 1908. He saw railroads move from the center of our culture to the far edge. David told me he retired to Florida but he wasn’t able to find him later.
“Farewell to Steam”, Plowden’s very first book, in 1966, imprinted itself into me as soon as my father brought it home — well, as soon as the pre-literate me pored over it over and over and over again. And the cabride story in “A Time of Trains” (1987) ranks as one of the greatest pieces of railroad writing ever. Plowden’s “Bridges: The Spans of North America” (1974, revised in 2001) demonstrates his vast scholarship as well as his mastery of photography. The list goes on and on — he has 26 books in his own name, another half-dozen with co-authors. One of the indispensable American photographers.
Oren, Plowden’s writing is great, not only for his rare story-telling ability, but also because his passion for his subjects comes through so clearly.
Plowden’s work is ever lasting. This shot reverberates with me still even after 50 years.