Planes, trains and automobiles

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The title of this article is, of course, a nod to that silly but great John Candy and Steve Martin comedy film, which, for those who’ve missed it, is an excellent way to spend an hour and a half of nonsense in the build-up to the Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities.

This picture clearly is more suitable for this time of year, when the moonlit nights are still warm enough for convertible cars and T-shirts. This drive-in scene from the 1950s exudes the atmosphere of the summertime. The steam locomotive, even then a relic of times gone by, speeding past the drive-in must have been quite a bonus for the cinemagoers. It will surely have muted the aeroplane on the silver screen.

The picture wasn’t quite the lucky shot it seems. Photographer O. Winston Link, who had a real passion for steam-powered trains and travelled the country to capture them on film, set it up. From a report: ‘Although it is possible that as many as half of Mr. Link’s photos were taken during the day, it is the night pictures that cemented his legacy. Picture-taking is largely about capturing instantaneousness, the ‘decisive moment’, but Mr. Link took great pains to arrange his compositions. They could take hours — even days — to set up. The night suited his methods, because the sun, that confounding variable, was always moving.’

Words: Jeroen Booij; picture: O. Winston Link
 

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