I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to articulate, either in writing or photographically, why I’m so drawn to Allapattah (Miami), Hialeah (Miami) or Vernon (LA). Time never seemed to move on in these places, seemingly locked permanently in the forties and fifties. Walking down 22nd Street in Miami or 48th Street in Vernon there is just such a sense of peace, calm, visual balance, and understated architectural beauty.
The LAJ layout is now essentially complete. The challenge now becomes how do I communicate photographically the same sense of calm and timeless elegance that I experience when I’m visiting these places in person? It’s a humbling process. Done in its traditional, press worthy format, model railroad photography is essentially an exercise in emotionless documentation. Pushed too far the other way, such as an entry in a photography contest, model railroad images have a tendency to come across as trying too hard to be creative. A great image does the job of evoking an emotion without giving the impression that it’s trying to do so.
The next step in the LAJ project is photographic. Will I be able to instill in you, the viewer, some level of emotion that will make you want to linger for awhile as opposed to saying, “nice photo” followed by the invalidating qualifier “….for a model railroad shot”. I have my work cut out for me.