Remember the age of the railway company photographer? He was paid to portray the railway as a business-like, industrious, modern and friendly corporate presence in Canada. Situations always looked way more serious in the black & white preserved-for-prosperity portrayal of everyday events. Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Great Northern, Northern Pacific and many other railway companies maintained photo collections and used photographs extensively in advertising, company publications and newsstand periodicals. Many people photos used actual railway employees but were obviously posed for the photographer. To lighten things up, I've captioned the photos in this post with some light-hearted captions.
Okay, so I'm not the first to use this approach. You may remember TRAINS magazine's use of similar photos with humourous captions. Each double-page spread inevitably showed a photo of some smiling running trades crew looking down from the cab with a caption like "David P. Who wants a cab ride?" Here's my version:
I hope you've enjoyed this whimsical, waggish walk through the world of the company photographer! Now, even more to enjoy - check out the Company Photographer Returns!
4 comments:
That was fabulous!
Glad you enjoyed it, Jason. The Dionne Quintuplets, no less.
Now I have to go through some old TRAINS magazines to find some of the actual photo spreads I was referring to. I have a second post of photos in the works, so this would be inspiration for the third!
Thanks for being a good sport and I hope the move into the new location is going well!
Eric
We should really share some stories and info.
I grew up in Brockville and would really like to meet up with you next time in back in that area.
I love all of your eastern Ontario stuff.
Thanks for your kind comments about my blog, which often covers eastern Ontario, my home! But also western Canada, which I've always enjoyed travelling to.
Email me anytime, mile179kingstonATyahooDOTca.
Eric
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