Cathedrals of the Industrial Revolution
When I started applying the graduate school in the late ’80s, I thought I was going to be the next Ansel Adams. I loved the environment, worked with an 8×10 view camera and made black and white prints. I thought that was the formula to be a great landscape photographer.
My first semester’s work was all Maine landscape. I thought it was beautiful, but the yawns from my classmates’ spoke louder than their kind words of encouragement. On the train ride back to Boston after that end of term critique, I saw an image in my head. When I returned to grad school in February, I took my 8×10 view camera on the train with me. When I got off the train at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, PA I set up my camera and made the images I had seen in my minds eye. For the February critique again I brought landscape work, and the yawns spoke loudly.
On the March trip, I brought more landscape and one workprint from 30thStreet Station in Philadelphia. The only image that was discussed was Bradd Alan. Thus began my graduate thesis, “Cathedrals of the Industrial Revolution.”
The love of photographing structure began with this project. Bradd Alan’s News Stand was the image that taught me I could photograph buildings. I love the ghosts of the commuters as they rush for their trains in the early morning light. It speaks to the spirit of a structure.
With Amtrak’s permission, for nearly three years I traveled to all the Amtrak stations between Washington and Boston. The ghosts followed me all the way.
This project forced me to go beyond my comfort zone. Setting up and 8×10 view camera in a busy urban train station was unnerving.
This disused water fountain spoke to me of times past, when water fountains were an expected elegance.
tillman