Getty Museum
Bear Creek Curve. L.V.R.R.
Creator
William H. RauAmerican Publisher · 1855–1920
All works by this person →Having been interested in photography from a young age, William H. Rau received his greatest early career boost from his association with photographer William Bell. Rau married Bell's daughter Louise, also a photographer, and in 1874 Bell secured a position for his nineteen-year-old son-in-law. Rau became the photographer for a United States government expedition traveling around the world to obse
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1895–1899
- Medium
- Albumen silver print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Positioning his camera directly in the path of an approaching train, William H. Rau made this bold composition of three parallel tracks converging at a bend along the Lehigh Valley Railroad. He framed the photograph so that the peripheral tracks enter the composition in the left and right corners of the foreground, receding toward the center of the composition. He placed the signal light, rather than the steam engine, in the direct center of the image. Beside the signal light, a railway worker stands with a hands on one hip. The photograph, which was probably made for railway advertising purposes, also shows the scenic beauty of rural Pennsylvania.
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