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Editor’s Notebook

On the Rewards of Losing One’s Way

An unplanned venture down a dirt road in the rain and fog.

In this era of smartphones and GPS, it is not as easy to get lost as it used to be. Gone are the days of stopping to ask directions, and puzzling over a tattered gas station road map. With a full tank of gas and no place pressing to be, getting lost can be an exciting pleasure, a gateway to discovery. In a sense, being lost is the essence of adventure.

When I set out with the camera, I usually have a plan, but my best intentions are easily de-railed by an interesting side road, or an arrow on a weed-overgrown roadside sign pointing to the unknown. Following my nose, I am soon happily lost.

We discover new things not on a well-worn path leading to a known destination, but by being lost. Being lost in the landscape is a way to be lost in time, and who knows what there is to discover around the next bend.

Of course, the smartphone in your pocket relieves the anxiety of not being able to find the way back at the end of the day, but sometimes I think maybe I would be happy just to stay lost.

Edd Fuller – Photograph and text Copyright 2021

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Going Through Changes

Meridian, Mississippi, 1965
Like most roads, Southern Railway ran GP-series locomotives on local trains. Here no. 2178 races southward toward Meridian, Mississippi, on an afternoon in July 1965.
©J. Parker Lamb, Collection of Center for Railroad Photography and Art
Used with permission

I was recently looking at some of J. Parker Lamb’s images and started to see locations I’ve shot at myself around Meridian, Mississippi, over the last couple of years. It’s truly amazing to see stuff that has changed over the decades. You see things in a totally different perspective and it kind of gives you the desire to go out and explore and try new techniques. At least that is what happened with me.

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A Surprise Ride on 
Amtrak’s Broadway Limited

The exact date is lost, but one warm summer afternoon in 1980 I headed over to Washington Union Station from my office at the American Railroads building for an overnight ride to Chicago. A meeting of the Research Committee was scheduled for the 9:00 a.m. the next day and my attendance was mandatory. I was a little worried about taking the train knowing that it could well be late, but the Assistant Vice President of the department was a former Pennsy man and he assured me that it would be okay. Even so, the rest of the staff flew.

My train was Amtrak’s version of the famous Broadway Limited. The original Pennsylvania Railroad Broadway Limited ran from New York City to Chicago via Philadelphia. In 1980 however, there were two trains that combined at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. The Washington section passengers rode forwards while the New York riders rode backwards across New Jersey.

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Editor’s Notebook

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.

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