Fallout

"I say that men die as in the world beyond, but here we see them as they lie dead, and have lain for so long."

William Morris The Well at the World's End

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This is an incredible work of art.

The pall of melancholy, sadness, and death permeates the atmosphere from several different levels. The subject itself with its details of rust, open ports, stagnation and defeat; the surreal sky with its incredible gradient...so much emotion in a single image.

The locomotive is old, it clearly has given all that it had to give, it appears to have collapsed from exhaustion while pushing its way down the track and have been left to rot. The grass and weeds have surrounded it and trees are growing in its path. The impious have scrawled their marks on it.

The suggestion of a train following behind gives this a touch of the surreal: where was it bound? Where from? What cargo was it pulling? Was the entire consist stricken with some sort of dark incantation that left it forgotten?

The artistic use of color - or perhaps I should say non-color - only serves to further these haunting impressions. Before anyone dismisses this technique, let me tell you that as one who lives in the forests, these colors are true to life. There are several days amidst the firs where the surroundings look just like this. This is not artificial to me. Enhanced perhaps but not contrived.

And even in the midst of all this, the "Beebe Wedge" technique is still followed with the usual pleasing results. Lighting, shadows, colors, positioning, composition - at all levels this is an outstanding artistic achievement.

Very good work!