Railroad Vision: Photography, Travel, and Perception
In 1830 the British actress Fanny Kemble described the sensation of riding in a train as "strange beyond description." This revolutionary new mode of transportation came into being at almost exactly the same time as an equally revolutionary new invention: photography. The two would radically change our perception of time, space, and our place in the world, leading to a new way of seeing that Anne M. Lyden, in this thoroughly engaging account, calls "railroad vision." In Lyden's words: "It is difficult for one to fully grasp how revolutionary these two nineteenth-century innovations were, yet their mutually beneficial relationship has shaped our experience of the modern world."
With more than one hundred photographs, many from the collection of the Getty Museum, Railroad Vision illustrates the parallel histories of railroads and photography-from a photograph of George Stephenson's steam engine Locomotion, to powerful images from the American Civil War, to a mid-twentieth-century photograph by O. Winston Link of a train roaring by a drive-in movie theater. Images by Carleton Watkins, Walker Evans, William Eggleston, and others capture the fascination inspired by railroads and the experience of travel by rail. Whether commissioned by railroad companies or made as independent works of art, these photographs testify to the enduring connection between two technologies that forever changed our perception of the world. Railroad Vision includes new information on many trains and locomotives that will be of particular interest to railroad enthusiasts.
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Railroad Vision: Photography, Travel, and Perception
In 1830 the British actress Fanny Kemble described the sensation of riding in a train as "strange beyond description." This revolutionary new mode of transportation came into being at almost exactly the same time as an equally revolutionary new invention: photography. The two would radically change our perception of time, space, and our place in the world, leading to a new way of seeing that Anne M. Lyden, in this thoroughly engaging account, calls "railroad vision." In Lyden's words: "It is difficult for one to fully grasp how revolutionary these two nineteenth-century innovations were, yet their mutually beneficial relationship has shaped our experience of the modern world."
With more than one hundred photographs, many from the collection of the Getty Museum, Railroad Vision illustrates the parallel histories of railroads and photography-from a photograph of George Stephenson's steam engine Locomotion, to powerful images from the American Civil War, to a mid-twentieth-century photograph by O. Winston Link of a train roaring by a drive-in movie theater. Images by Carleton Watkins, Walker Evans, William Eggleston, and others capture the fascination inspired by railroads and the experience of travel by rail. Whether commissioned by railroad companies or made as independent works of art, these photographs testify to the enduring connection between two technologies that forever changed our perception of the world. Railroad Vision includes new information on many trains and locomotives that will be of particular interest to railroad enthusiasts.
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Railroad Vision: Photography, Travel, and Perception

Railroad Vision: Photography, Travel, and Perception

by Anne Lyden
Railroad Vision: Photography, Travel, and Perception

Railroad Vision: Photography, Travel, and Perception

by Anne Lyden

Hardcover(First Edition)

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Overview

In 1830 the British actress Fanny Kemble described the sensation of riding in a train as "strange beyond description." This revolutionary new mode of transportation came into being at almost exactly the same time as an equally revolutionary new invention: photography. The two would radically change our perception of time, space, and our place in the world, leading to a new way of seeing that Anne M. Lyden, in this thoroughly engaging account, calls "railroad vision." In Lyden's words: "It is difficult for one to fully grasp how revolutionary these two nineteenth-century innovations were, yet their mutually beneficial relationship has shaped our experience of the modern world."
With more than one hundred photographs, many from the collection of the Getty Museum, Railroad Vision illustrates the parallel histories of railroads and photography-from a photograph of George Stephenson's steam engine Locomotion, to powerful images from the American Civil War, to a mid-twentieth-century photograph by O. Winston Link of a train roaring by a drive-in movie theater. Images by Carleton Watkins, Walker Evans, William Eggleston, and others capture the fascination inspired by railroads and the experience of travel by rail. Whether commissioned by railroad companies or made as independent works of art, these photographs testify to the enduring connection between two technologies that forever changed our perception of the world. Railroad Vision includes new information on many trains and locomotives that will be of particular interest to railroad enthusiasts.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780892367269
Publisher: Getty Publications
Publication date: 10/30/2003
Series: Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum Series
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 180
Product dimensions: 11.00(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

Forewordxii
Acknowledgmentsxiv
Introduction: "Railroad Vision"1
The Dawn of a New Age: Railroads and Photography7
Bridges, Trestles, and Viaducts37
The Moving Landscape79
Railroad Visions115
Notes146
Notes to the Plates149
Index158
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