Photography

Few people associate thinking with photography. In reality they are so close that we cannot tell one from the other.

John Alton, from a section called What Is Thinking in his 1949 book Painting With Light.

Consider this list of model railroaders where photography appears to play a significant role in their practice:

John Ahern

John Allen

Glenn Footscray

Dave Frary

Malcolm Furlow

Ben King

Lance Mindheim

E. L. Moore

Chris Nevard

John Olson

Jerry Quinn

Paul Scoles

Pelle Soeborg

+ many others. I mean no offence to anyone I've omitted. These are simply names that readily came to mind when I started to write this post.

I sometimes wonder if innovations in the medium come as much from photography as they do from layout design, research, or improved detail. This is likely well trod ground, but as I continue my stay-at-home bookshelf adventure it's one of the topics I've been thinking about. 

From the moment I began broadcasting, that medium seemed like another world, as indeed it is. The moment I began to experience the studio environment, my while reaction to what I could do with music under the proper circumstances changed totally. From then on, concerts were less than second best - they were merely something to be gotten through. They were a very poor substitute for a real artistic experience.

Glenn Gould in Turning His Back on His Audience

Try out this idea for a minute: layout operation is to model railroading as giving concerts was to Glenn Gould. Or maybe this one: photography is to model railroading as studio recording and broadcasting was to Glenn Gould.

In his article, Turning His Back on His Audience, Mr. Gould discusses how in the '50s he came to realize that producing an album or broadcast wasn't simply recording a performance as best as one could, but was about the creation of an altogether more appealing sound than that which I was able to achieve under "real, live" conditions. Likewise, in the hands of a master, applying photography to the medium isn't simply recording a layout - although it's often put to that purpose. It allows for expression that's maybe closer to what the modeller actually has in their mind that casual layout observers don't see. In fact, in many photographs the layout is as superfluous to getting at the user's meaning as a concert is to a Gouldian recording.

Since the fate of most layouts is destruction followed by a last ride to a dumpster, and given that the internet can circulate and store a seemingly endless stream of photographs and video, maybe the medium's future developments in expression won't require a layout of any sort. Clearly, this isn't news to many people, but I'm always on the trailing edge :-)