Friday, July 26, 2013

Railyard Blues

Trains, Railroad, Nova Scotia
©David Sorcher 2010

What is it about trains that capture our fancy so and drive our creative spirits to production? They have been the inspiration for songs, books, poems and films and a subject for painters and photographers since they first appeared on our landscapes. They have been the fuel of folklore and legend. My boyhood years were punctuated each night with the distant sound of the train whistle as i lay awake in bed, sparking dreams of traveling the rails to new and unknown towns and places. To this day that sound is still a familiar comfort. 
I've been mining old files again. These were shot back in 2010, again in Nova Scotia, in a Halifax railyard. I'm not sure exactly why i let them sit for so long, but since many of them were envisioned in a polyptych format my recent activity with such presentation has finally spurred me on to work some of them up. 

©David Sorcher 2010

This was a little photographic field trip i took with my friend Rob one morning. As photographers are often apt to do we found ourselves trespassing, getting into places we really don't belong because, well, we just have to now, don't we? :-)

©David Sorcher 2010

This particular yard provided all kinds of interesting fodder for photographs. As usual i found myself attracted to rust, decay and disrepair. 

©David Sorcher 2010

I look for images that join moments in time through color, line, form and content.

©David Sorcher 2010

I have a strange attraction to old railroad spikes and will often collect them as i walk the line. These ones were particularly eroded by time and the elements, though i left them behind so as not to weigh down my luggage on the trip home. The visual record will have to suffice. :-)

©David Sorcher 2010

Even if the trains themselves are not really your thing, i wonder how many have ever come across an abandoned stretch of railroad and been able to resist walking along the rusty rails for a time, or if the line is still active, placing a penny on the rail and waiting for a passing train to flatten it under the thunder of it's rolling metal wheels. 






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