Harry Dean Stanton

Here’s a picture of Harry Dean Stanton, walking the tracks…it’s from Paris, Texas (1984) by Wim Wenders.

The film was one of the great films of the 1980s…

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Polish Children’s Book • Locomotive • Tuwin

I’ve posted before about the Polish children’s story, The Locomotive by J Tuwin and with illustrations by Lewitt and Him.

It turns out that this book has been published, over and over, in various illustrated editions.

Here, with pictures by Jan Lenica

Here, with the loco by JM Scanzer

And here, with illustrations by M Gurowska

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

British Rail Intercity 125 • Enamel Badge • 1970s

Lovely

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bert Hardy • Railway Picture Post • 1950s

Terrific

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Andreas Feininger • New York Railway Station • 1940s

Lovely

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Sebastiao Salgado • Indian Railway Terminus

Wonderful and terrifying…

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Silver Dome Observation Car • Willard R Culver • National Geographic • USA • 1950s

Beautiful…and pin-sharp

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Girl on a Train • Fashion Shoot • Lillian Bassman • 1951

How to travel in style…

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Freight Lettering…

I’m often a bit disappointed by the lettering and typographic design on vans, lorries and trains….so, I’m delighted by this. I love it. Click on the picture to see it bigger.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Lewis Hine • Railway Photographer • USA • Early 20C

The democratic and republican origins of the US has tended towards a mythologising of ordinary people and the intrinsic dignity and heroism of blue-collar America. Nowadays, this is still evident in the RnB of Bruce Springsteen…and in the long tradition of US street photography.

Lewis Hine played an important role in developing the visual representation of ordinary life. He’s most famous for his iamges of steepljacks building NYC skyscrapers…and them having picnic lunches atop the scaffold…

Here are some of his railway pictures

Hine was a socioligist who used hos photographs as evidence for social reform. He played an important role in the the reform of child labour laws…

Upton Sinclair is anothe rfigure who s important in establishing an agenda for social reform. Sinclair famously wrote about the brutal working conditions in the livestock markets, yards and abattoirs of the Chicago railhead…the book is called, The Jungle (1906).

Sinclair also wrote about the adventures of Sergei Eisenstein in Hollywood and Mexico.

More recently, the British film director, Peter Greenaway, has made a film about Eisenstein in Mexico.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment