---  October 8 meeting at Barnes Hall  ---

The Art of Railroad Photography

 Charlie Dischinger’s program is more about the “art” of railroad photography than it is about the subject matter.  It will begin with a show entitled: “Just a Figment of My Imagination” which is an introduction and explanation of the reasoning behind Charlie’s images.  Following his opening introduction is the show entitled “Back to the Future 3.5” which highlights how spending just a few minutes in programs like Photoshop, Lightroom, or Adobe Bridge can transform the initial capture of an image into more of a work of art.  Charlie is retired from the Frisco railroad, among other things.  He is driving out here from his home in Missouri.

 Charlie was an artist first.  He grew up in the shadow of his father, a freelance commercial artist specializing in photo retouching, and cannot remember a time while growing up when he was not going to follow in his father’s footsteps.  He was learning rudimentary skills of photo retouching before starting high school.  He had the equivalent of about two years of practical experience as a commercial artist by the time he started studying art in college.  After obtaining his BFA degree, he worked in the printing business before making a career change to his second love, trains & railroading.

 His interest in photography waned until about 1991 when he got back into it.  At the time, he began searching for new and more creative ways to create images beyond documentation.  But it wasn’t until the advent of the digital age that he was truly inspired.  He has been retired from the railroad for nineteen years, and shortly after retiring, he went back to school to take several digital graphics courses.

 It has been a long but interesting photography ride.  He now has over 50 thousand pictures (mostly trains).  He experienced the transition from B/W to color film, witnessed the loss of Kodak’s rein on the film world, experienced the transition from analog film to the digital world, and experienced the growth of digital photographic capabilities.  He can now do photographic retouching in minutes, which used to take hours or days to do with an airbrush and paintbrush.  We can now do things that were only imaginable 30 years ago.  Charlie says it has been an amazing journey.