H. Reid - Photography

Photography

Author Lewis describes Reid as a "consummate artist of the black & white image." At a time when many rail photographers concentrated on still photos taken from front and side profiles, Reid created unusual shots. Taken from above and below, Reid's photographs often included scenery or surrounding features in the genre described in depth in author Leo Marx's 1964 book The Machine in the Garden. Reid's photographs inspired such terms as "nostalgic" and "moody."

The travels of Reid and his friends in search of rail subjects took him to sites as far from Hampton Roads as Louisiana, New England, and the Hudson River Valley in New York. H. Reid was fortunate in many ways, among them, that steam railroading was still occurring in his lifetime, and that restrictions to photographic locations for safety and security reasons were more open than in modern times. That does not mean his work was easy. In those days, the hobby of rail photography was still emerging, and railfans such as Reid occasionally slept in logging camps and rose with the sun to catch the work of steam locomotives on the short line railroads which were the last bastion of steam in the United States. Even in more populated areas, there are many tales told of H. Reid climbing embankments and standing precariously on signaling equipment to capture an unusual angle. To quote from a railway enthusiasts website, "Lest these tales of H. Reid be considered unbelievable, naysayers are directed to the photographic evidence."