If anything can be said to be my life's work it is my train photography. My father took the photo to the left (click on that photo to enlarge) when I was 14. My father was a railroad man, the best kind, an engineer; and I totally was enthralled by his magic carpet made of steel. Both he and the train seemed bigger than life to me. He didn't just drive the train. He was the train.
I used to go to work with him and ride around at night on the diesel locomotives. I can still remember the sights, the sounds, the smells of those rides.
Photography for me started as a quest to capture those times. I became a photographer to take pictures of trains. Everything else came as an add on to that. It has been a hell of a ride. The Southern Pacific Railroad and the many images I have made of it are a small drop compared to the memories I have, for example; oil trains grinding through Tehachapi Loop at 5 miles an hour with the locomotives sounding like they're going to explode. To me, to this day, it all still seems bigger than life; like my dad.
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