TRACKS RAILWAYS OF THE WORLD. A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY

The railway environment is fascinating because it is one of contrasts. Train stations can be one of the most crowded and bustling of places but they can also be deathly silent, emptied of all life. They can be palaces of architectural magnificence but also the most dowdy and depressing places to wait. Often the surrounding urban environment can be best described as dingy, down-trodden, and a wasteland.

Are railways not these mysterious creatures that lie so silent and narrow and yet carry huge steaming, screaming metal monsters hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles. They that enjoy the romance of being laid by hundreds of toiling labourers in the past, opening up and criss-crossing continents and countries. Or conversely they might be the last object that a tragic suicide victim might see. Often railway lines can be surrounded with controversy: the anger surrounding the building of the high speed rail system in England is one current example. So what makes these images of interest? Well perhaps as another photographer wrote, ‘The combination of high contrast monochrome, urban landscape, and the leading lines of the rails, all contribute to a feeling of coherence and consistency in these images.’