This photo series began as not just a step outside of my comfort zone, but a full blown leap!!! I wanted to challenge myself to capture history in motion…to show the motions of time as they travel through air, over the rails and out on the open road. My own love of all things vintage and a desire to utilize my creative talent together to contribute to the colors of yester-year in the style for this series. Each of the unique and separate shoots took place to create the series samples you’ll see here. Each of these works are available for purchase through contact here on my website.
The elegance of the culture of travel has varied through the many decades. Beginning with the airplanes, moving on to the grand steam engine and eventually the automobile, the desire to see and travel the world has been enhanced and changed by each of these.
The planes with the WWII nose art are what began my love of the vintage lifestyle imagery. This art of trying to boost the morale of pilots who were not guaranteed to make it back from their prospective missions, was ingenious and became its own artform. Finding these pieces of art at airshows has always been a thrill for me. Whether it’s walking around imagining what life must have been like during the days when equipment was much like life in general…more simple or finding nose-art on the exterior of the machine designed in some cases to defend our country…Either way I come back to my original love for those days when my grandparents both contributed to the efforts of WWII. My grandfather as a soldier/scout and my grandmother as a Rosie (supporting the war back home as a seamstress in war factories). My love for them both and the pride in my country leads me to capture as much of this piece of history as I can. While standing near as the planes propellers slowly hum to full speed creating the wind and the anticipation of the flight they are about to take, it takes my breath away to think about the appreciation of the sacrifice and love for our country I was taught as a young child.
These planes that are being restored, treasured and loved by their owners are works of art in and of themselves as well as preserving history and those memories by teaching a whole new generation about days gone by.
The Big Boy 4014 steam train was a first for me as I had only ever had the opportunity to capture locomotives in stationary form, in motion was intimidating and exciting at the same time! After traveling an hour from my home, I finally was able to make a bucket list shoot come true. The literal overload of excitement from my senses was incredible! The feeling of the arrival as it shook the ground where I stood while rolling into the station, hearing the pitch of the whistle announcing it’s arrival, seeing the whole majestic view of the steam versus the cold January air and finally smelling the scents of the oil meeting hot burning gears as it came to a stop directly in front of me, were too compelling to not capture as much of the opportunity as possible. I had to document this in it’s entirety for not just my upcoming gallery show, but for my own journey in my career as a photographer.
The gradual beginning of movement again was awe-inspiring to see, feel the clacking of metal on metal as the wheels turned and hear the engine roar to life as it began it’s next leg of the journey. Jumping into my vehicle to race ahead of the train and get to a vantage point near the tracks led to the image of “Full Speed Ahead”. The results of full steam was amazing and heart pounding as it rolled through a nearby corn field next to me…kicking up all the debris as it roared up to speed on the rails to it’s next destination. The next stop would not doubt gather the crowds it had in the small town I traveled to, who would marvel in the majestic beauty of Big Boy 4014 as well.
The automobile session has a special place in my heart after the passing of my Dad in January 2021 as he was a lover of all cars in general. He would spend as much time as you would allow him to talking about his cars he had owned in the past. Growing up in the 50s must have been a glorious time as he recounts the experiences of drag racing, cruising his low sitting pickup truck or missing a ride in a doomly-fated 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air as a young kid in high school that would take the life of several of his friends. I grew up appreciating the older more solid cars that are collectors today because of my Dad. The shoot you see below was from a group of car collectors who absolutely take pride in their vehicles as rolling history and personal works of art. I was honored and appreciative of the openness to bring their rides to help me capture the history. The hard work they put into them to restore and bring them back to life is a reminder to me of the age when times were so much simpler. Times when glamour, simplicity and hard work were not shunned, but celebrated and cherished. These eras are what have continued to be both successful and nostalgic aspects throughout my work, that have become a small way of keeping those times alive and well through my work capturing these images.
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