A photograph titled “The Railroad that Stuck to Steam (1959)” by renowned photographer A. Aubrey Bodine captures a steam locomotive used on the grounds of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, DC. The locomotive, the line’s fourth, was built ten years prior to the photograph and cost $45,000. This image, available for ordering on www.aaubreybodine.com, represents a piece of industrial history preserved through Bodine’s lens.
A. Aubrey Bodine (1906-1970) is regarded globally as one of the finest pictorialists of the twentieth century. His works were exhibited in hundreds of prestigious shows and museums, earning top awards against fierce competition. Bodine began his photographic career in 1923 covering stories for the Baltimore Sunday Sun, traveling throughout Maryland to create remarkable documentary pictures of various occupations and activities. These documentary pictures stand out for their artistic design and lighting effects, far surpassing typical newspaper standards.
Bodine submitted his photographs to national and international salon competitions, consistently winning top honors. He believed photography could be a creative discipline and studied art principles at the Maryland Institute College of Art. To him, the camera and darkroom equipment were tools akin to a painter’s brush or sculptor’s chisel. His craftsmanship was evident in his constant experimentation; some of his best pictures were composed in the viewfinder, while others involved manipulating negatives with dyes, intensifiers, pencil markings, and even scraping to achieve desired effects. He added clouds photographically and made other elaborate manipulations. His rationale was that, like a painter, he worked from the model and selected features that suited his sense of mood, proportion, and design. He did not take a picture; he made a picture.
The full biography of Bodine, titled “A Legend In His Time” by Harold A. Williams, is available on www.aaubreybodine.com. More than 6,000 photographs spanning Bodine’s 47-year career can be viewed on the same website, and images can be ordered as reprints and note cards. This photograph, in particular, serves as a reminder of the steam-era railroads that persisted in niche applications, and Bodine’s artistry ensures its legacy endures.
