By Rail looks at the landscape and built environment of North America. It depicts a vast geo-cultural bloc connected by the subtle, sometimes barely visible, infrastructure that forged much of the Canada and United States we know today. Before railroads most of the continent was a barely penetrable hinterland. Their construction provided an armature for a modern industrial civilization. It determined the fortunes of immigrants, industrialists, natives, and nature, and many contemporary cities evolved from flyspeck whistle-stops.
By Rail portrays the present though, and
our relationship with this technology still distinguishes North America from other developed nations. Despite a unique and intimate history with rail we insist it doesn’t work here. While Japan and Europe refine their systems and China pounds out a massive expansion, we view trains as something from a bygone era. I suppose it’s this attitude I wanted to explore with By Rail. In 2008-09 when most of these photos were made our auto sector crumbled, culture wars eclipsed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the first multi-racial Leader of the Free World was also the first president-elect in five
decades to arrive for inauguration by rail. Nostalgic, elegiac, and critical, I see these photographs attempting to reconcile the dawn of a golden age with it’s conclusion.
By Rail was made with assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts and Light Work.
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