Center for Railroad Photography & Art: John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards 2023
Last night — August 22, 2023, at 8:00 p.m. — I watched a conversation with the six winners of the 2023 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards hosted by the Center for Railroad Photography & Art (CRP&A). The award is named for the CRP&A founder, who began the nonprofit organization in 1997. The theme for this year’s contest was “The Role of Technology”. During the program, the winners spoke on the circumstances surrounding their award-winning image, their experiences photographing railroads, and tips for aspiring photographers. The recording of the event will be available on the Rail Photo Art YouTube channel in about two weeks.
Chris Walters, winner of First Prize for Black & White, used a drone to capture a stunning image of lined up Alstom Metropolis driverless train sets on the Sydney Metro, part of Northwest Rapid Transit (NRT Group). The image is related to Walters’ project to photograph the approximately 360 railway stations in the Sydney, New South Wales, Australia area. The elevated line opened in 2019 and proved a terrific location for drone footage. Walters explained that in his image, the “textured patterns dominated by trails on rails... [and] might look like a circuit board… [it’s] an attention getter”. To get this shot, Walters consulted Google Maps and chose a time of day when the shadows were at about 45 degrees, making the final image look “a little bit unreal”. Although his photographs are beautiful, he sometimes struggles to relate to drone images, feeling that the shots “look great, but I phoned it in”. Before he had a drone, he would walk five to twenty kilometers to get a shot, adding a sacrificial element to the artistic journey. On the technical side, drones have a short battery life, and he is always charging at least one of his five batteries. During the recent 100th anniversary celebration of the Ōtira Tunnel, part of the Midland Line of Kiwi Rail located on the South Island of New Zealand, he photographed the train emerging from the tunnel while his drone battery was on 26%. Walters plans on finding new ways to photograph railroads with drones that feel more personal.
Blair Kooistra, winner of First Prize for Color, began his career as a photojournalist documenting the last days of the Milwaukee Road (also called Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, & Pacific Railroad, CMStP&P, or MILW). In his winning photographer, he captured volunteer train driver Nik Procter taking a tea break at Grosmont Motive Power Depot on North Yorkshire Moors Railway in England. Kooistra took a pair of trips to the area in 2019 to take photos of heritage steam locomotives. While he researched ahead of the trip using maps and online research, this photograph was “serendipitous”, as overcast lighting combined with the black background of nearby sheds to separate brightly lit Procter from the rest of the scene. To fit with the “Role of Technology” theme, Kooistra described the relationship between English tradition and the combination of fire, water, and steam, whether this appears in the ritual of teatime or completion of the first steam locomotive by George Stephenson in 1825. In fact, nearby Grosmont Tunnel was built in 1830, a mere five years after the invention. Kooistra noted that railroad culture is stronger in the United Kingdom than in the United States with many heritage railroads and a unique “sub-industry of heavy-duty trucks that move locomotives” from one historic railway to another for festivals. Even though travel has its benefits, Kooistra explained that new photographers do not have to go to another country or purchase fancy equipment. Instead, they can hone their craft at a friendly local railroad using a simple digital camera or phone.
Richard Koenig, winner of Second Prize for Black & White, has taught art and photography at Kalamazoo College in Michigan since 1989. He originally photographed his winning image in 1976 while in high school using “a beat-up twin lens reflex camera” and cropped the image from a square to a landscape format before submitting it to the contest. The photograph is black-and-white because he was receiving free film from his high school as part of the yearbook staff. The photograph depicts the inside of an office on a branch of Illinois Central Railroad near his childhood home. The carefully arranged desk holds a two-part telephone, Motorola radio, and carbon copy paper, which were common methods of communication before the Staggers Rail Act of 1980. (This Act removed economic regulation from the railroad industry in the United States and led to improvements in safety.) Koenig was inspired by fellow railway photographer Gary Dolzall, who believed black-and-white was the best option for being published in the 1970s. Another inspiration was architectural photographer William Eggleston, who had the first one-person show of color photography in the MOMA the same year that Koenig shot his winning picture. Today, Koenig anticipates his final project before retirement. He plans to combine dark sky and star photography with train photography while capturing the Colorado & Southern Railroad in northeast New Mexico.
John Troxler, winner of Second Prize for Color, previously won a CRP&A award in the Black & White category in 2020. His photograph featured a westbound Norfolk Southern Railway train passing a communication tower in Clymers, IN during sunrise. Troxler’s daily drive to work parallels the railroad line. He monitors the railroad traffic using a scanner radio. On this day, he stopped on a bridge and waited for the train to come. “I’d shot from the bridge hundreds of times… I wanted to include the tower,” he explained. “It was one of those fleeting moment photo opportunities. When they come by, you have to take the opportunity up.” Tying into the technology theme, Troxler explained that modern communication systems made correspondence more efficient and improved safety, but advancement led to job loss. For his tip, he mentioned that he enjoys photographing in the still countryside during the early morning when most people are not up yet, although the passing train “cancels out all that quietness for a few minutes”.
Frank Barry, winner of Third Prize for Black & White, captured a Speeding Nickel Plate 2-8-4 passing the station in Painesville, OH back in 1957 during his Thanksgiving vacation from college at University of Southern Indiana. He hitchhiked to the station and learned from the station agent when the train would come. When describing the content of the photo, Barry explained how railroad men delivered messages to the passing trains. A dispatcher would telegraph or telephone the message to a station agent, who wrote or typed the message and attached it to a long, circular metal apparatus with a clip on the end. The station agent would stand outside and hold up the pole, while the engine crew attempted to snatch the message. In the newer method portrayed in Barry’s image, a permanent metal apparatus was built in an ideal location near the station, allowing the engine crew to snatch the message more easily. Barry also talked about his four years of photographing steam trains in Mexico during the 1960s. Engineers frequently allowed him to ride with them, saving him from hiking many miles, as he averaged eighteen to twenty a day. One time, an engineer refused to let Barry ride and inadvertently saved his life, as the train derailed later that day.
George Hiotis, winner of Third Prize for Color, photographed a tower operator at Miller Tower located along the Cherry Run connection and interchange on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Miller, WV. This image is part of his project documenting vanishing railroad towers, as advancements in modern technology have made these towers obsolete. Centralized train control (CTC) using touchscreens allows computerized management of a full system from one location in contrast to the expense of paying for three shifts a day at multiple towers throughout a region. Most traditional operators who used levers and a model board are now unemployed. To complete his project, Hiotis conducts in-depth research using printed materials, topographic maps, photographer ephemera, internet searches, Google Earth, and physical location scouting. During photoshoots, he controls the light to capture “the human element” and “tranquil moments” to “convey the drama of railroading”. Outside of his project, Hiotis loves photographing railroads that run through northern New Jersey where he lives, including “Pennsy” (Pennsylvania Railroad Company), NJ Transit (formerly New Jersey Central), the former Morris & Essex leased by Lackawanna Railroad, and Hudson Division of New York Central Railroad.