O. Winston Link

(Brooklyn, New York, 1914 - 2001, South Salem, New York)

North America, American

The passion of O. Winston Link, who was a successful advertising photographer in New York, was photographing steam locomotives. His images not only documented the dwindling number of steam engines remaining in service but explored how changes in technology were impacting American life. Link also set out to photograph these enormous speeding hulks at night and developed new techniques for nighttime motion photography. Link used his degree in civil engineering to custom build his own flash equipment required by the large scale and low light of his dramatic scenes. He also recorded the sounds of these steam engines and found that his high quality sound recordings of this old technology gained recognition many years before his photographs. In 1983 the Akron Art Museum launched Link as a fine art photographer when Carolyn Carr mounted the first art museum exhibition of his train photographs. That exhibition and subsequent tour helped the artist gain an enthusiastic art world audience.

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