Virtual Conversations 2021: Saturday, April 10

Saturday, April 10, live sessions on Cisco Webex Events (all times are U.S. Central).

• 9:30 AM, Webex meeting opens, Attendees’ show on repeat 
• 10:00 AM, Welcome and Introduction, Scott Lothes
• 10:15 AM, CRP&A Collections Update, Adrienne Evans
• 10:30 AM, Jonathan Glancey & Ian Logan, “The Story Behind the Book: Logomotive: Railroad Graphics and the American Dream”  
• 11:15 AM, Yoichi Uzeki, “Two Cities, Two Scenes, and Two Minds”
• 12:00 PM, Break (East/Central U.S. Lunch), Attendees’ show on repeat
• 12:45 PM, Patrick Cashin, “20 Years of Images for the Nation’s Largest Transportation System” 
• 1:30 PM, Kevin Scanlon,“Journey to Thurmond” & Kevin Tomasic,“Outside to Insider”
• 2:15 PM, Break (Pacific U.S. Lunch), Attendees’ show on repeat
• 3:00 PM, William Gill, “Illuminating the Railroad Landscape”
• 3:45 PM, Jeff Mast, “‘Let’s See Some Trains’ – The Photography of John F. Bjorklund”
• 4:30 PM, Erik C. Lindgren, “My Journey with Art and the Steel Rail”
• 5:15 PM, Conclusion

Patrick Cashin, “20 Years of Images for the Nation’s Largest Transportation System”

Patrick Cashin has been the photographer for the New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) for the past twenty years. His interest in photography began while serving in the US Navy. Following military service, he worked in Newsweek Magazine’s photo lab for sixteen years. During that time, he traveled around the world as a photographer for the Naval Reserve and the Pennsylvania Air National Guard until retiring from military service in 2012. Along the way his work was recognized by the CRP&A in 2004 and 2011.

Patrick Cashin will share a representation of the work he produced for New York City’s MTA over the past two decades, from the subway, commuter railroads, major construction projects like the building of the Second Avenue Subway, to portraits of the people who make it all happen. From the tops of the bridges, to the depths of the subway system, his presentation will offer a wide range of images showcasing the MTA’s commuter system and the nine million people it serves daily.

 

William Gill, “Illuminating the Railroad Landscape”

During the day, William Gill works as the Director of Web Design for the University at Albany, and he photographs at night. His undergraduate degree in information technology and art provided the technical foundation for building and lighting outdoor studios along the tracks. He lives with his wife, Stephannie, and their dog Woodrow in a row house they restored a few blocks from the tracks in Troy, New York.

William Gill’s presentation will offer a view into the process of using flashes to light scenes at night with the goal of capturing the experience of watching a train pass by. As he attempted to light larger scenes, Gill developed a set of tools for transporting and arranging his camera and lights to achieve cinematic lighting without a large crew. He will share images that represent his vision of night and behind-the-scenes images taken as he worked.

 

Jonathan Glancey & Ian Logan, “The Story Behind the Book: Logomotive”

The journalist, author, and broadcaster Jonathan Glancey is a trailblazing commentator on architecture and design, writing about buildings, cars, planes, and trains with deep knowledge and infectious enthusiasm. The architecture and design editor of The Guardian from 1997 to 2012, he now reports on those topics for The Telegraph and newspapers and magazines worldwide. His obsession with trains began in childhood, and has inspired four books, The Train: A Photographic History (2004), John Betjeman on Trains (2006), Tornado: 21st Century Steam (2010) and Giants of Steam (2012), in addition to the Channel 4 mini-series Small Railway Journeys (2006). His other books include Twentieth Century Architecture (1998), Lost Buildings (2008), Nagaland: A Journey to India’s Forgotten Frontier (2011) and What’s So Great About the Eiffel Tower? (2017). He has written and presented numerous TV documentaries including, for the BBC, The Genius of Design (2010), Design Icons (2016) and Concorde: A Supersonic Story (2017).

Ian Logan was at the center of the design revolution that marked the end of post-war austerity. He studied at the Central School of Art and Design in London (now Central St. Martins), and won a scholarship to the Konstfack, Stockholm’s University of Arts, Crafts, and Design. In the early 1960s he joined JRM Design, a fabric print company in London’s East End.  Logan’s passion for vintage railroad Americana was rooted in a Fifties and Sixties childhood attuned to the sounds of folk, skiffle, and blues under the influence of his uncle, Ewan MacColl.

Ian Logan explains how his fifty-year love affair with trains has culminated in a book celebrating every aspect of American railroad iconography and design. Jonathan Glancey, playing fireman to Logan’s engineer, reveals his own fascination with trains, their looks, their sounds and their habitat – stations, freight yards, viaducts, distant hills, and engine sheds. Together Logan and Glancey uncover the history of the railroads and how their services were created and sold to the public over the generations.

 

Erik Lindgren, “My Journey with Art and the Steel Rail”

Erik Lindgren captures the history and the power of automobiles, locomotives, and various images through color, graphic patterns, and design. An avid train enthusiast since childhood, he demonstrates in his paintings his attention to detail and authenticity that comes with being a student of history. Lindgren’s camera captures trains in an effort to obtain reference for his artwork. Using photos as reference, he hand paints every brush stroke in his extraordinary compositions. A graduate of Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design in Denver, Lindgren has illustrated for authors, automotive clubs, and many magazines, and has had several featured covers for The Narrow Gauge & Short-line Gazette, as well as for corporate and private collectors.

Erik Lindgren will present on his two artistic mediums – oil painting and photography – and discuss how those two formats blend in his overall passion for railroading.

 

Jeff Mast, “‘Let’s see some Trains’ – The Photography of John F. Bjorklund”

Jeff Mast was born in Detroit and has spent his career in the city’s metro-area working in municipal civil engineering. He last presented together with Michael Valentine at the CRPA’s Conversations 2015 on a program called “Journey into Photo Charters.” An avid photographer with awards for his photography, he has been photographing railroads for more than fifty years and has authored numerous articles in the railroad press with his photography also appearing in many magazines and books.

A viewing of John Bjorklund’s photography across the US and Canada with impressions of John and his work from his friends.

 

Kevin Scanlon, “Journey to Thurmond”

Kevin Scanlon has spent the last fifty years documenting heavy industry and railroads across the country. He is drawn to subjects such as steel mills, the coalfields of southern West Virginia, and Great Lakes freighters. His photographs have been displayed in four solo gallery exhibits, nine other exhibits as well as appearing in various books and magazines and on the covers of the literary journal Paper Street. Scanlon lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Dory Adams. He is recently retired and spends much of his time doing volunteer work. In addition to doing preservation work at the Carrie Blast Furnaces and Rivers of Steel archives, he is also involved with the restoration of the East Broad Top Railroad shops in Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania.

Kevin Scanlon’s presentation will explore a thirty-six-year relationship he developed with the town of Thurmond, West Virginia. He made seventy-two visits there during that time and has witnessed the transformation from a working railroad town to a static center for visitors to the New River Gorge National River. There is a wealth of good stories associated with Thurmond, and Scanlon will share some of his favorites.

 

Kevin Tomasic, “Outside to Insider”

Kevin Tomasic has been an industrial furnace estimator and project manager for over thirty years, and is the proud father to two grown sons. He lives in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Troy neighborhood overlooking the Allegheny River and the old B&O Pittsburgh and Western mainline. Railroads and industry are his favorite pastime, along with playing with any dog he might happen to meet. He shares custody of a miniature schnauzer, Ellie, with his girlfriend Carole, who is also his editor.

Kevin Tomasic will describe his journey from a railroad fan outsider looking at the industry from the trackside to becoming an insider, through his work as a furnace estimator, by getting into the facilities and seeing what they were really like.

 

Yoichi Uzeki, “Two Cities, Two Scenes, and Two Minds”

A native of Tokyo, a pianist, composer and arranger, Yoichi Uzeki received his bachelor’s degree at Temple University and his master’s degree and the Sir Roland Hanna Award from Queens College, City University of New York. Uzeki started seriously taking railroad photographs after he opened his Instagram account on July 31st, 2015. Since then he has taken railroad photography in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Chicago, and all over Japan.

Yoichi Uzeki’s presentation will discuss the differences and similarities in two different cities (NYC and Tokyo), two different scenes (urban railroad and rural railroad), and two different minds as a photographer and composer/jazz pianist.

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Enter the conference from a home-secured Internet server; issues have been experienced with university and/or government protected networks. The best way to enter the event is through the link in the email invitation – not through an electronic calendar or through the desktop application directly.

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Cisco Webex Test Sessions

We will host Webex test sessions ahead of Virtual Conversations 2021 that we highly recommend attendees join. If you experience any issues when logging into the event please take screen shots of the problems and send them to info@railphoto-art.org so we can best assist you. This also helps us learn about new problems so we can better serve our members for future online programming.

Webex Test Sessions will be offered in the week leading up to the conference. These sessions will run for about 20 minutes each. Later registrations will not have access to these sessions. Instructions regarding how to join these test sessions will be announced at a date closer to the event.