Some of us just go goofy for trains. And not just any trains, but the clanking, steaming behemoths from the past.
Railroaders: Jack Delano’s Homefront Photography is a fascinating new book that is sure to entrance all readers, not just buffs like me.
The book journeys back to the waning days of rail, documenting the lives of Midwestern laborers as they emerged from the Great Depression.
That would be an ambitious book in itself, but Railroaders goes much further: It adds drama and social history by publishing interviews and images of the photo subjects’ families today. The handsome volume accompanies an exhibit running at the Chicago History Museum through August 2016.
Jack Delano’s career as a photographer began in the 1930s with the federal Farm Security Administration. He photographed migrant workers, coal miners and life in Puerto Rico, where he later relocated, taking up a second career as a composer.
When World War II broke out, he and many other photographers moved to the Office of War Information, where he was assigned to document the influence of railroads on U.S. culture, primarily in the Chicago area.
Some of Railroaders is portraiture. Much of it is poetic, revealing dignity in the most common of laborers and in the intimate settings of shadowed stations. Often it’s stark, with smoke and grit staining men, sky and snow. Delano’s work covered all aspects of rail, from ticketing and depot life to cabooses, shops and switching.
Delano’s son, Pablo, has extended his father’s work by tracking down the descendants of the book’s subjects. Interviews and essays round out a social history of what once were called “railroad families.” We meet the children and grandchildren of a department store clerk who became a tower man; a brakeman who barely finished eighth grade; an engineer whose brother rode the rails as a hobo; a yardman with a secret family; and many more. Each is a worthy short story.
Because Jack Delano’s work covered all of rail life, many of his images feature African Americans, who otherwise tended to be overlooked by government photo agencies. Some of the 1940s images are in rich, deep color, but most are dramatically lit black-and-white.
Railroaders serves as an affecting testament to a way of life that has all but vanished, and as tribute to a photographer whose work still intrigues.
Railroaders: Jack Delano’s Homefront Photography
Edited by John Gruber, University of Wisconsin Press
