For many commuters, The Rail Runner is simply an appliance to convey them to work in Santa Fe from Albuquerque and back. Based on my experience watching freight trains rumble through my hometown in Colorado and years later, riding Metro North from Westchester County suburbs to New York City, I see the Rail Runner as immense and powerful machine with compelling graphics moving through a magnificent southwest setting. As a photographer inspired by the black and white images of Ansel Adams and Michael Kenna, this incomplete collection attempts to capture the monumental scale of the machine as it speeds through the canyons, pueblo lands, and in future additions, the industrial sites on the journey from Santa Fe to Albuquerque.
To create the images shown here, I explored the Rail Runner from afar, incorporating the
Sangre de Cristo peaks, the barren trees of the Rio Grande Basque in winter, and many scenes of the pueblos. I shot the reflections of the passengers in the train’s windows and captured the views they experienced peering from the windows. And, I had some fun creating composites that I hope will make you smile and say, “What! Wait! That can’t be right!”
The Rail Runner
