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| Furlow centre spread from A Treasury of Model Railroad Photos |
My love affair with model photography began during the summer of 1978. Up until that time I was a professional musician traveling throughout the United States, playing Reno, Tahoe, Vegas, and a host of other, lesser-known watering holes.
As I look back on what seemed a strange transition at the time (becoming a photographer/modeler), I have now come to regard my entry into this creative field as a natural extension of my music career.
From Malcom Furlow’s introduction to his chapter, Performing the art of illusion, in Kalmbach’s 1991 book, A Treasury of Model Railroad Photos.
Furlow’s thought that his move from being a working musician to a photographer/modeler was a perfectly natural career development is quite interesting, but I’ll leave the discussion of the link between model railroading and music to another time as it’s Furlow as photographer I want to take a look at.
In my last attempt to write something on Furlow to mark his passing I detoured onto E. L. Moore street. I guess that happened as my connection to Furlow’s work isn’t that strong. Although he was a prolific and influential modeller, I didn’t build any of his model projects or layouts. When he was at his peak in the model railroading press, I wasn’t active in the hobby, just a sometime reader of magazines.
What I did appreciate at the time, and continued to appreciate over the years, was his skill as a photographer. He was that rare breed who could create a miniature scene, light it, and then capture it on film in such a way that you believed it was real and you were there, in it and a part of it. I think the majority of model railroaders aren’t able to photographically capture the excitement they feel about their layouts. It’s only a few who can, and those photos energize and change their own work as well as inspire others to improve theirs too. This is a group that includes John Allen, John Ahern, E. L. Moore, Dave Frary, John Olson, Paul Scoles, Ben King, and many others whose use of photography as an inspirational tool has changed the hobby as much as any hands-on modelling technique.
When Furlow was active in the hobby in the 1980s and 1990s I gather he often took a lot of flak, sometimes personal, from more tradition-oriented constituencies and that was one of the reasons he left model railroading for an extended period. Apparently his work was accused of being a John Allen derivative, that he was an imposter, and his approach and view was out-of-step with the real prototype and operations wings of the hobby. I recall reading somewhere that Furlow said he was indeed inspired by John Allen’s work, but was his work derivative? I don’t think so. Again, from his writings, it appears John Allen’s work was one source of inspiration, but his love and affinity with the western and southwestern US was more influential. One of the hobby’s characteristics that accounts for its ongoing popularity is that it has many facets: the ability to simulate railroad business operations, electronics & control, historical modelling, scenery construction, structure building, a wide range of scales and layout sizes, and so on. Conflicts can arise when a large constituency has formed around one of those facets and believes it represents the ‘correct’ way to engage with the hobby, which is no different than lots of other activities in life.
For me though, it was Furlow's photographs that I remember and admire. I still hope I can achieve even just a fraction of his technical mastery and skill at visual storytelling. If you can find a copy of A Treasury of Model Railroad Photos, buy it. Yes, the photographic techniques it discusses are from the film era, but the photos themselves, text from the authors, and the setups are timeless.
Who in this hobby hasn't been inspired by John Allen? Maybe his fame has faded over the years, but where would this hobby have been without John Allen? The real first superstar of the hobby world, credited as inspiration to decades' worth of modelers. Allen McClelland helped modelers capture the eastern forested mountains, Eric Brooman excelled at Utah, David Barrow Texas. Since then, many others discovered the joys of the less-modeled parts of the country as well as different seasons. I suspect John Allen's western mountains were popular because they required far less trees and lichen wasn't plentiful yet. In any case, any derivative of his work (plus excellent color photography) has only served to advance the hobby. We've all benefited. Malcolm Furlow helped sell a lot of magazines and push us all further in our modeling efforts.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! Thanks for the comment.
DeleteNow that the hour is a bit saner and I’m tanked up on coffee, some thoughts about John Allen are coming back to me.
DeleteI think of Allen as a dramatist and stylist, using a layout instead of a play as his medium. That famous photo of his with the floor-to-ceiling mountains showcasing trains crossing them on a variety of rickety looking bridges says it all. I can’t help but get the feeling from that photo of the grandeur and danger of trains in mountains. He captured the feeling - the drama - in a powerful way that hadn’t been seen before (although I wonder if Francis Lee Jaques was doing the same thing at the time but wasn’t anywhere near as well known: https://30squaresofontario.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-model-railroad-abstractions-of.html ).
Maybe a year or so ago Vince sent me a link that talked about Allen’s work, and the writer stated that Allen’s layout was dominated by an apocalyptic vision (as was George Selios’ Franklin and South Manchester). That idea stopped me in my tracks, and it certainly needs some more investigation. I think there is some truth to it as far as Allen’s layout is concerned. Railroading in the mountains has never been a pleasure cruise, and Allen’s layout certainly gets across feelings of danger. Furlow’s on the other hand never induced in me apocalyptic feelings or of danger. Maybe that has to do with how the 2 layouts were lit and photographed. I need to find that link and think about this some more.
Allen and Furlow were certainly giants. I need to get back in the saddle and do what I like doing: investigation. I tried to ask chatGPT about John Allen, but it was clueless. Never ask an AI to do a human’s work:
Me: Can you tell me something about John Allen the famous model railroader?
chatGPT: I apologize, but I couldn't find any specific information about a famous model railroader named John Allen in my current database. It's possible that the information is not widely known or that the individual you're referring to is not extensively documented.
Model railroading is a popular hobby, and there have been numerous influential figures in the field throughout history. If there is another well-known figure or a different topic within model railroading that you'd like to know about, please let me know, and I'll be happy to provide information on that subject.
“Not widely known”? “Not extensively documented”? Oi Vey! Never trust an ‘intelligence’ that can never be involved in an activity that is as deeply human as model railroading.