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[railwayhistorical]

More on the Eclipse

Here's another image, a larger file, of the recent eclipse. I used a different capture that I optimized with the flares in mind. In addition, I'll place a link here for a short article on these ruby-colored phenomena called "prominences".

One image by Richard Koenig; taken April 8th 2024. Once again, I was in Liberty Center, Ohio.

[railwayhistorical]

April 8th 2024

The eclipse, seen from Liberty Center, Ohio.

The first image is where I'm exposing for the solar flares rather than the corona. The second image was taken by my partner as I fussed over my long lens set-up. I believe that's Venus below the sun in that shot, which goes far in showing what it looked like around us during the event. The final image was taken as totality ended.

While we had some thin, high clouds, they didn't really mess things up too badly. All in all a nice event to take in during a spring day!

[railwayhistorical]

Pons-Brooks/Jupiter

Just to follow up on the previous two posts: I was not thrilled with what I could see of Pons-Brooks, but was pleasantly surprised when I spied Jupiter with her four large moons present, though did not notice till I opened images on the laptop later.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken April 5th 2024. The location is Lookout Park, St. Joseph, Michigan.

[railwayhistorical]

Lookout Park

These taken after attempt for green flash, and prior to looking for the Pons-Brooks comet. This nice little park is located in St. Joseph, Michigan.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken April 5th 2024.

[railwayhistorical]

Yet Another Attempt

The green flash: since seeing it last year (but not shooting it ‘cause I was not expecting it), I tried many times to photograph it in the following months. I made several trips over to the west side of Michigan but was thwarted by smoke from Canadian wildfires and/or clouds near the horizon line—every time. The green flash, in effect, became my white whale.

Recently, I heard about a comet, Pons-Brooks, and wanted to try to shoot that as I'd gotten a decent shot of Neowise several years ago. Going over to Lake Michigan would give me the best view to the west as it would be low toward the horizon. Then it hit me, if it’s totally clear at St. Joseph, I might as well try for the green flash prior to it getting dark for the comet.

While not an outstanding result, I'll take this given my earlier, fruitless attempts. By the way, the comet was a dud: a fuzz ball with no tail that I could discern, alas.

Four images by Richard Koenig; taken April 5th 2024.

[railwayhistorical]

Chicago—as a Tourist A couple of shots of the Chicago River, the first showing the Wells Street Bridge, the Merchandise Mart (left), the Reid Murdoch Building (with clock), along with one of the two towers of Marina City and the St. Regis Chicago (by Jeanne Gang) in the distance. I'm mystified by all the L trains, and I believe the one pictured could be any one of several that make a trip around the loop—which is to the right in this image.

The second image has much the same but with the addition of the Linnea (architectural tours), and the La Salle Street Bridge.

The third image shows us the John Hancock Building, now known as 875 North Michigan Avenue (sure, whatever you say): a 100-story building finished in 1968. I was standing at the lake front at about Walton Place for that view.

Three images by Richard Koenig; taken March 29th 2024.

[railwayhistorical]

Easter, 1965

This is how it used to be done, growing up Catholic in the white bread Midwest, wearing a little suit or tiny prim and proper dress and off to church—departing from your housing "addition" in the newly established suburbs a bit outside of town.

Not positive on the date here, it could be '66. Only half of the six of us still walking on the face of the earth at this stage.

One image by one or other of my parents, perhaps my mom, using her Kodak Instamatic camera (given the square format).

[railwayhistorical]

The Allman Brothers Band

Re-posting this with some additional details...

When Gregg Allman (1947-2017) passed nearly seven years ago, I was driven to the negative archive to see if I had any decent shots of the man. I had attended at least two concerts in 1979, as I recall, which would put these images in the Enlightened Rouges time period. I was not thrilled with the quality of the negatives I found, but I was glad to have them nonetheless.

Gregg used his Hammond B-3 with Leslie speaker, of course, but what one sees above is an electric piano with “Hohner” printed thereon. In addition to Gregg, there are three other original members of the band playing during this time period—Dickey Betts, who can be seen playing his Gibson Les Paul, as well as both drummers: Jai Johanny Johanson (Jaimoe) and Butch Trucks.

In the end, one can say that Gregg Allman certainly had an interesting life, with extreme highs and lows. Musically, he had a unique voice and wrote some very memorable songs. The band, which Gregg and his talented brother Duane formed in 1969, was extremely influential and enjoys a firm place in the history of rock and roll. Duane is often to be found on lists of "best guitarists" of course—he was an unusual talent, to be sure.

Three photographs by Richard Koenig.

The close-up of Gregg was taken in Indianapolis at Market Square Arena on May 26th 1979. The other two: the Band from afar, with the second highlighting Dickey, were shot at Alpine Valley, near East Troy, Wisconsin, on August 18th 1979.

[railwayhistorical]

Dining Car

Sometime recently I was sitting around lamenting that I did not take a picture of dining car service back when I rode some trains in the mid-1970s. This was when Amtrak was a little more than five years old. I then ran across this rather weak example amongst my slides.

We’re riding a southbound Amtrak Floridian in northern Indiana, somewhere between the state line and Lafayette at this point, not that it matters. We’re on the Louisville & Nashville, former Monon.

This shot was made between meals of course, but it’s most likely the only record I have of how nice the tables were laid out, with white tablecloths, real china and silverware, fresh flowers. I don’t really know how nice the service is these days—it may be somewhat similar on the long distance Amtrak trains of today, but I’m not certain.

One image by Richard Koenig; taken November 28th 1976.

[railwayhistorical]

Barrio Viejo

We’re in Tucson, Arizona, in the neighborhood known as Barrio Viejo.

Two of the images were taken at the corner of Convent Avenue and Simpson Street. The lone palm stood at 450 S. Meyer Avenue—and still does as per street view.

Three images by Richard Koenig; taken May of 1995.

[railwayhistorical]

City as Metaphor

Two diptychs from my project, City as Metaphor, will be on display in an exhibit next month…

Society for Photographic Education Members Exhibition: New Realities Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville March 4th through the 27th 2024

The juror is Eric Lutz, Curator at the Saint Louis Art Museum. The exhibition is in conjunction with SPE’s national conference in St. Louis which happens March 21st through the 23rd.

These Brooklyn views were made forty years apart: first in 1981 (when I was a photography student at Pratt Institute) and then in 2021. The first diptych was taken at 511 Myrtle Avenue while the second was made at 197 Adelphi Street.

All images by Richard Koenig.

[railwayhistorical]

Koans

Some of my older work is being published in the next issue of Drunken Boat, an on-line literary journal. Issue 25, will go live March 12th 2024. I assume the title of the publication comes from the 1871 poem by Arthur Rimbaud—Le Bateau ivre.

Update: the issue in question is out and can be seen here.

The images in question were made at an artist residency known at the time as Millay Colony for the Arts, in upstate New York. Prior to this I had employed the tactic of re-photography, but this is the first time I focused exclusively on my body as subject matter.

The use of the duplicative hanging print in this case is self-referential in regard to both the medium as well as the subject. The small body of work is named for the Japanese (Zen Buddhist) riddle that urges one to think beyond logic and reason. I see these works starkly exploring the nature of one’s existence and reality itself.

Three Polaroid/digital hybrid works by Richard Koenig.

[railwayhistorical]

Westbound at Joliet

One more early image, taken the same day as my previous post...

The train pictured may be the famed Super-C, a hot TOFC train that ran between Chicago and the west coast. It's westbound near the tower at Joliet once again. The Santa Fe ran parallel to the GM&O at this spot; the train will cross the Rock Island within seconds.

The lead locomotive is an SD45-2 built in May of 1974, so only a little over a year old. It has a 20-cylinder prime mover that produced 3600 horsepower.

One photograph by Richard Koenig; taken September 20th 1975.

[railwayhistorical]

Quad Cities Rocket

Another one of my earliest railroad images...

This is an eastbound Rock Island Quad Cities Rocket with E8 655 on the point. It was built for the railroad in March of 1952.

The location, of course, is the well known crossing with the ATSF and GM&O at Joliet, Illinois.

One photograph by Richard Koenig; taken September 20th 1975.

[railwayhistorical]

Eastbound at Joliet

One of my oldest images of railroad action...

An eastbound train of the Santa Fe is powering through Joliet, Illinois. It looks like a trio of large General Electric U36Cs are on the point of this train, with number 8715 leading the way—it was built for the road in 1973. There are three EMD units in the consist as well.

It’s also interesting to note that the semaphores are still on the signal bridge south of the diamonds there (with Rock Island), which govern both the ATSF and GM&O tracks. I’m not sure when these distinctive signals were replaced.

One image by Richard Koenig; taken September 20th 1975.

[railwayhistorical]

Night into Dawn—Bloomington, Illinois

Bloomington was a haven for EMD F-units back in the mid- to late-1970s. I ventured over there from Indiana several times to shoot the "covered wagons" of the Gulf Mobile & Ohio, sometimes in the dark. The GM&O was part of the Illinois Central Gulf by that time, but engines weren't painted quickly after the merger took place in 1972, which was fabulous for railroad enthusiasts. [I believe two of the F3s did make it into the orange and white scheme of the ICG.]

We begin this little sequence of images with a view of number 810B: it's an F3 built in 1947. This unit would be upgraded to pull commuters for citizens of Boston, as MBTA 1111. [In the end, a few of these charismatic F-units went to Boston, a few others to Metro North, but I believe others were scrapped within a couple of years from the time of these photos being made.]

Despite the lure of the Fs, I was also attracted to this wonderful SD40, a so-called Redbird. This one was built in September of 1966. Lastly, number 811b is an EMD F7 built in 1949.

I love the beginnings of daylight in the eastern sky in these latter two images. Three photographs by Richard Koenig; taken at dawn on November 21st 1976.

[railwayhistorical]

Teutopolis, Illinois Here we see an eastbound Conrail era train, on the former Pennsylvania Railroad, just west of Teutopolis, Illinois. The position light signals here seem quite anachronistic—as does the jointed track (for an active main line such as this). One image by Richard Koenig; taken in June of 1979.