O winston link biography of william

O. Winston Link, a Brooklyn, New York, native and commercial photographer 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.

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 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 time frame 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

American photographer (1914–2001)

Ogle Winston Link (December 16, 1914 – January 30, 2001), known commonly as O. Winston Link, was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photography and sound recordings of the last days of steam locomotive railroading on the Norfolk and Western in the United States in the late 1950s. A commercial photographer, Link helped establish rail photography as a hobby. He also pioneered night photography, producing several well-known examples including Hotshot Eastbound, a photograph of a steam train passing a drive-in movie theater, and Hawksbill Creek Swimming Hole showing a train crossing a bridge above children bathing.

Early life

Link and his siblings, Eleanor and Albert Jr., spent their childhood in the borough of Brooklyn, New York City, where they lived with their parents, Albert Link Sr. and Anne Winston Jones Link. Link's given names honor ancestors Alexander Ogle and John Winston Jones, who had served in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 19th century. Al Link, who taught woodworking in the New York City public school system, encouraged his children's interest in arts and crafts and introduced Winston to photography.

Link's early photography was created with a borrowed medium formatAutographic Kodak camera. By the time, he was in high school he had built his own photographic enlarger. After completing hi

Photographs: Winston Link

Publisher: Norfolk and Western Railway

16 pages

Year: 1957

Comments: Softcover, 280 mm × 215 mm, photographs in b & w. Some wears to the cover. Kept in very good condition. (Reference: Parr / Badger, The Photobook: A History, Volume II p. 188-189.)

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O. Winston Link's haunting black-and-white photographs from the 1950s depict the end of the era of steam railroading in the United States and the rural landscapes of Virginia and North Carolina that these last trains passed through. Link's evocative nocturnal images are at once highly staged technical feats, nostalgic representations of a disappearing way of life, and beautifully strange works of art produced during the era of film noir.

Link, a commercial photographer in New York City, made more than twenty trips to Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina between 1955 and 1960 to photograph the Norfolk & Western Railway. His photographs convey an eerie sense of absence, representing the vanishing "species" of the steam locomotive. But the images, which often include railroad workers or local residents, are also imbued with a deep humanity, a reminder of the complicated relationship between man and machine. 

Link's achievements have received international recognition and his photographs can be found in the nation's premier museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2004, the O. Winston Link Museum opened in Roanoke, Virginia. 

Trains that Passed in the Night is drawn from the collection of Link's former assistant and agent Thomas Garver and is circulated by the Center for Railroad Photography & Art. The exhibition is comprised of fifty black-and-white gelatin silver photographs printed and signed during O. Winston Link's lifetime. Reynolda's installation of the exhibition will include