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Highlights

O. Winston Link Exhibition

"Railroad Photographs of O. Winston Link: The Last Steam Railroad in America," most recently at the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento, is available to travel. All of its 36 framed, original prints are signed by the photographer. The exhibition is organized by Thomas H. Garver and produced in collaboration with the Center for Railroad Photography & Art.

"Railroad Photographs of O. Winston Link" recognizes the railroad work of O. Winston Link, a Brooklyn, New York, native and commercial photographer who became well-recognized for his complex images of factory and industrial plant interiors. For Link, the steam railroad was a vital ingredient to "the good life" in America, an essential part of the fabric of our lives. It is this quality--of life, not machinery--which he captures so artfully in his photographs.

O. Winston Link's photographs showcase the final years of steam railroading on the Norfolk & Western Railway, the last major railroad in America to operate exclusively with steam power. They are regarded as one of the best records of this long vanished type of locomotion, yet the broad appeal of Link's photographs is derived not so much from the images of the steam locomotives themselves, but from the way in which their inclusion expresses the photographer's deeply felt respect for the quality of life that the steam railroad reflected and supported for so many years in the United States.

In fact, the emphasis in O. Winston Link's photographs is often placed more directly on life along the railroad line than on the locomotives and trains themselves. In many of these images a locomotive or train is found in the background only, often subtly. Given the timeframe the images were recorded (1955-1960), Link's railroad images also offer a unique look back at the automobiles, small towns, and yes--even the hairstyles and fashions in vogue a half-century ago.

The last Norfolk & Western steam locomotive was taken out of service in May 1960. O. Winston Link returned to New York following the last of his many trips to Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina (the states in which his 2,400 Norfolk & Western Railway images were recorded) and continued his career as a commercial photographer. His subsequent portfolio of work included documenting construction of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York Harbor, and doing photography for Volkswagen of America as well as a number of advertising agencies. O. Winston Link died of a heart attack on January 30, 2001, near his home in South Salem, New York.

Garver is available for a one-hour presentation providing context and depth that assists viewers in fully appreciating "Railroad Photographs of O. Winston Link." Garver worked as Link's assistant for a year in the 1950s and was later Link's business agent. He is the author of the text of the second book of Link's Norfolk & Western photos and was the organizing curator of the O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, Virginia.

The first Link exhibition in collaboration with Garver was at Southeast Missouri Regional Museum of Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 2005.