O. WINSTON LINK
American
O. Winston Link is known primarily for his extra-
ordinary documentation of the final years of the
steam railroad engine and of America’s vanishing
rural landscape during a five-year period between
1955 and 1960. His lifelong fascination with rail-
roading, combined with the knowledge that the era
of the steam engine was indeed passing, had
prompted this documentation. When his bold
black and white, night-time photographs of trains
were first exhibited several decades later in 1983, he
was linked evermore with his subject.
Named after two maternal ancestors who served
in the United States Congress in the nineteenth
century, Ogle Winston Link was born December
16, 1914 in Brooklyn, New York to Earnest Albert
Link and Ann Winston Jones Link. Link’s father,
Al, was an elementary school carpentry teacher and
Ann a homemaker. Introduced to various technical
activities by his father, Link’s career trajectory in
the manual arts is attributed to his father’s influ-
ence. As early as four years of age, Link was
enthused by trains when he glimpsed a toy train
set in a department store window. On day trips
with his father, Link shot New York harbor and
other landmarks. Trains were also frequent sub-
jects of his adolescent photography as he haunted
rail yards and railroad hubs in New Jersey. A self-
taught skilled amateur photographer, Link devel-
oped his film at home and printed the photographs
with an enlarger that he built.
While attending Manual Training High School
in Brooklyn, Link served as the photographer for
the yearbook. But from an early age, his father
had convinced Link to become a civil engineer,
and Link won a scholarship to attend Polytechnic
Institute of Brooklyn (now Polytechnic Univer-
sity). His interest in photography was sustained,
however, as he served as the photo editor for the
yearbook and photographer for the class newspa-
per. Link supplemented his income by shooting
weddings on the weekends.
After earning his degree in 1937, Link was offered
a position as publicity director for the public rela-
tions firm Carl Byior and Associates; he accepted
thinking it would do until he landed a job in his field
of engineering. Link applied his technical skills,
refined aesthetic, and sense of humor to each
assignment he received, mastering the ability to
stage a photograph yet make it seem spontaneous
and natural, the necessary components of public
relations photography. One of his photos for a
new type of heat-resistant glass was described by
Lifemagazine as a classic publicity picture.
In 1942, he left Carl Byior to work on a research
initiative at Columbia University, New York, that
advanced the war effort. Deafness in one ear had
prevented him from serving in the military; however,
he used both his civil engineering knowledge and
technical skills in photography on several projects.
Link helped develop a device that detected enemy
submarines from low-flying planes. He worked on
capturing the speed of bullets on film, and documen-
ted the commercial research company, Airborne
Instruments Laboratory in Deer Park, Long Island.
Ignoring the wartime ban on railroad photography,
he shot steam engines on the Long Island Rail Road,
whose tracks lay adjacent to the laboratory, thus
renewing his interest in a favorite subject.
His desire to capture the drama of trains at night
inspired him to work with other engineers to
develop radio signals that would activate a series
of flashes that would illuminate his subject. The
project failed because the metal bulk of the trains
interfered with the radio signals, which could not
activate all of the lights. As well as depicting the
afterburner effect of jet airplanes taking off, Link
solved other scientific and photographic problems
during his years at the laboratory. Although the
strobe photography of Harold Edgerton is better
known, Link also used strobe lights and adapted
them for synchronized flashes, which became a
valuable technique that he would brilliantly apply
to his most celebrated work.
After the war, Link went into business for him-
self as a commercial photographer specializing in
industrial subjects. First working out of his par-
ents’ house, he eventually rented space in Manhat-
tan in 1949. Link’s clients included top advertising
agents and companies like B.F. Goodrich, Alcoa
Aluminum, and Texaco, though he accepted occa-
sional assignments from theNew York Timesand
various fashion houses.LINK, O. WINSTON