American photography at artnet auctions

 

O Winston Link - Hot Shot Eastbound at the Drive-In... 1956

With biding open until May 14 artnet auctions presents a sale of American photographs which explores various aspects of the American cultural landscape. Highlights of the sale include works by William Eggleston, Lee Friedlander, Ansel Adams, Joseph Szabo, Edward Weston, Irving Penn, and O. Winston Link.

The auction includes one of my favorite photographs, O. Winston Link's well known work Hot Shot Eastbound at the Drive-In, Iaeger, West Virginia, 1956. The work carries an estimate of US$8 - 12,000.

On the hot night of August 2, 1956, while the Iaeger Drive-In was showing Battle Taxi, a Korean War movie, O. Winston Link photographed the scene. Link used two exposures on separate sheets of film, one for the image on the movie screen, and the other for the rest of the photograph. This image has been reproduced worldwide, and remains one of Link's most famous works. The image brings together many archetypes and themes of the American experience: love, cars, movies, and the steam railroad.

For Link, the steam railroad was a vital ingredient to “the good life" in America, an essential part of the fabric of our lives. It is this quality - of life, not machinery - which he captured so artfully in his photographs. This image is from a series in which Link photographed railway trans at night, juxtaposed with small-town America. 

You can go to the artnet auction page HERE.