“Your work is awfully still for subjects that always seem to be moving”

These words rang above my head like the cries of a thousand songbirds. After showing a brief portfolio to my new photography professor for my elective class, he refused to give me the approval I desperately craved. But from this disappointment came inspiration- My photography would never be the same.

Sure, I could frame an image, or get a half-decent angle, but up until this point my word lacked this quintessential piece that drives images from the page and into the mind of the audience: Movement. As a railroad photographer primarily, my subjects are always moving, yet I neglected to showcase that motion in my photography, opting rather for “wedge” shots that told no story. No more. From that day on, I began to challenge myself, armed with low shutter speeds, steady arms, and the willingness to accept failure. I seek to construct narratives within the images I create, showing the lifestyle of railroads and it’s ever-longing changes that move forward, whether you’re ready for it or not. As I continue with my pursuit of photographing trains and the lives around them, I hope to tell stories within a single frame that illustrate the culture, the dedication, the passion, the drama, and most of all, the motion of railroading.