Link worked out a deal. Once he lost his wallet on a shoot and a railway crew searched 100 miles of rail to find and return it. It wasn t until the 80s that the work began to attract wider interest. Since then there have been a number of exhibits and books, and Link s photographs hang in major museums. The standard line on Link s pictures is that they portrayed an idyllic America, well-served by steam, whose inhabitants had only the faintest appreciation of the beneficent monsters that made their lives possible.
More complicated themes emerge from careful viewing.
The train is headed into past, the movie viewers are oblivious to it. Their cars have made them independent of rail travel, and the jet is what holds their attention. History and even love are moving into the jet age as the steam engine is moving into history. As with most great art, it is a mistake to read too much into a Link photograph. Link himself was not terribly instructive on what his work was about.