Over the past several years I’ve been riding trains and
photographing the landscape. This summer I fulfilled a dream by traveling
across the country creating photographs and videos.Passenger, the first exhibition of the project, is on display at ChromaProjects Art Laboratory in Charlottesville.It features eleven new images plus a video from my journey. I will give an artist talk October 17 at 7 p.m. in the Dickinson Theater at Piedmont Virginia Community College.
My exhibition space at Chroma- what used to be the cooler in the
old florist’s shop- is wonderful. Because it’s long and narrow, even a little
crowded, it reminds me of the trains that inspired my work. Deborah McLeod is
the gallery owner and her husband Rob assists in the operation of the space.The exhibition is up until October 27.
We boarded the Southwest Chief at 10:15PM in Flagstaff, AZ, an hour and a half late. The landscape was dark and I would not make my first photograph until 4:46AM the following morning. On this morning the train whistle woke me, often this means we're approaching a road or town. I peaked out the window to see lights in the distance, lots of lights that extended high above the horizon. Feeling a wave of excitement, I slid out of bed, this was more than a small town or a railroad crossing. I picked up my camera and sat in my seat waiting patiently as light emerged from the darkness.
Once the massive plant passed, I returned to the rhythm of watching patterns unfold as the landscape became littered with structures. We passed distribution centers, new construction, storage facilities, and miles of infrastructure that sustain daily existence. Arriving in Los Angeles was a thrill, it was our destination, we successfully crossed the country.
The Southwest Chief bolted out of Chicago determined to maintain it's schedule. We passed the corn festival, the Mississippi River, wind turbines, processing facilities, soy, corn, horses, cows, miles of desert and lots of freight cars, LOTS. Then we stopped. We sat in the dining car wondering why were stopped, freight passed but we remained still. While eating dessert in the desert we were informed the train would be heading back to Albuquerque. Another train full of empty coal cars had derailed ahead of us. At 9PM, the time we were to arrive in Flagstaff, AZ, we loaded a bus for a 6 hour bus trip to our destination. Today we board for Los Angeles. The Southwest Chief runs only once a day, so we depart in the dark and approach Los Angeles during the sunrise. Wish us luck.
Here are a few iPhone photos from Union Station in Chicago and the Southwest Chief route. The ride is, at times, fast and bumpy, then other times, slow and steady. We are currently leaving Albuquerque, NM.
The slow steady midnight train to Chicago, the Capitol Limited, was worth every minute. The experience included storm clouds, rain, a sunset, a sunrise, miles of farmland and steel mills. Riding through Pittsburgh was less revealing than I imagined, but I captured a few photographs displaying the city amongst bridges. Below are a few unprocessed images from the first two legs of this trip. Today we board for the longest segment, 31 hours to Flagstaff, AZ. We'll travel through Illinois, Iowa(tiny bit), Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. I wonder what else is out there besides corn and soy?
Sunday we'll leave on this railway for DC then board the Capitol
Limited route to Chicago. I'm in the final stages of testing my tools
and gathering information. Please check back for updates.
My mission as an artist is to seek, document and share experiences. Earlier this year, I was an Artist in Residence at Burley Middle School in Albemarle County, Virginia. I presented photographs from the Empire Builder route of myI Ride Trains project. First, students described 14 different photographs from the train route through a sensory exercise. Next, they were asked to write a journal entry, newspaper article, letter or essay based on the imagery. On the third day, we captured photographs traveling by bus throughout Charlottesville, Virginia. It was such a fulfilling experience to watch over 70 middle school students engage with their environment through photography.
My project was a Kickstarter staff pick and was noted on there blog.
Thank you everyone for your support.
I Ride Trains: Photographing America, by Stacey Evans
I
love Stacey's project because I want to live through her vicariously.
The Virginia-based photographer has made a career out of riding trains,
traversing wide swaths of the American landscape in order to capture it
via photographs and videos taken from rocking train car windows. She's
taken fourteen trips so far, resulting in an impressive collection of
imagery that explores the American landscape, and how people "co-exist
with other humans, architecture, and nature." What a life! And her next
trip will be her longest yet, beginning in her homebase of
Charlottesville and ending all the way in Los Angeles. I'll back because
I want to be there every step (train track?) of the way! — Cassie M.
Lone Tree is a finalist in the Earth Through the Lens photo exhibit in the Rancho Mirage Public Library in Palm Springs California. The exhibit is held around Earth Day and highlights the natural and human impact on the environment. The photograph was taken onboard the Palmetto route train in South Carolina. Here is a link and page from the digital catalog.
