Trains are fascinating huge machines that power our economy. As a child, I would ride my bicycle down to the local train station (old, boarded up, and off limits to me) and I would, inevitably, place pennies on the tracks, wait for a train to pass and then go searching for my flattened pennies. My mother would know whenever I went there because of the grease marks on my jeans from sitting on the tracks…always a price to pay for being bad but I had my flattened pennies!

I recently lost a friend to cancer; Doug was a former work colleague and we quickly became good friends. Doug’s passion in life since he was a young man was trains and transportation.

I recently visited a railway heritage display in Lindsay, Ontario and made some photographs to show Doug. After Doug’s passing, I decided to work on these photographs and make finished images in his memory. 

The final images were made by combining multiple photos. I wanted these photographs to reflect the majesty of these machines where you can both hear and feel their rumble in your chest and the ground trembling at your feet as they pass by. Some of these photo montages convey the physical presence, power and movement of trains, some focus on machinery and structural details whilst others incorporate elements of a train’s journey through nature. For me, this approach to making photographs creates a plethora of visual intrigue in every image with multiple overlapping of colours, shapes, textures and lighting. In making these, I wanted the viewer to be able to imagine witnessing these trains in action and consider their history and import.

This series is entitled “Machina – Tramen” (Latin for “Machine – Train”). All photographs in this open edition series are available as 13 x 20 inch archival pigment prints priced at $325 CAD.

Michael Christidis