Seth Tane

I've been fascinated by railroads since I could walk, and maybe even before that. I've gone into some detail about this subject in prior news posts, like this one from 2015: Tracks. Recently I've returned to exploring the rail lines on both sides of the magnificent Columbia River Gorge, another area of visual interest for me that's fortunately only a short drive from my Portland studio. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe runs on the Washington side of the river and the Union Pacific on the Oregon shore, both carrying many trains a day, with some Amtrak passenger trains joining the more frequent freights on the BNSF tracks. Unit trains, consisting of a single type of car and commodity are over a hundred cars long, and use multiple engines on the head end, in the middle (run by radio remotes) and sometimes on the tail end as a pusher to get over the mountains. This is big-time western railroading that runs on a fine line between safety and commerce, in rugged and scenic country with oil, coal, lumber, autos, potash and agricultural products roaring up and down these tracks perched on rocky shores.

The Cascade Mountain range is the contintental divide at this latitude, with Mt. Hood towering over the gorge and visible from many spots along the tracks and the river. East of the divide near Hood River, OR the thick green coniferous forests quickly give way to desert conditions, with dramatic basalt cliffs and deep side canyons. The rail lines cross the Columbia between Biggs Junction, OR and Wishram, WA on an old steel lift bridge that I walked across back in the '70s. They connect to the big classication yard nestled into the rocky little town of Wishram, where there are buttes in backyards, a monument to Lewis & Clark next to the tracks, and one of the huge steam locomotives that used to run through here now half-hidden under a shelter and behind a fence in the village park.

Even though it's been pushing 100F for weeks, I've been driving up in my mobile studio van and finding open gates that lead down gravel railroad access roads that reveal some powerful vistas and sections of track that are otherwise inaccesible. In some cases, I launch the inflatable kayak I keep in the rig to get to the right point of view, where even the sketchy roads don't go, to shoot stills and video, working to capture the essence of these locations. The intervals between trains are unpredictable, and force a kind of meditative wait, sometimes while keeping my senses tuned to stay out of danger, and sometimes to capture the train in motion as it blasts out of a tunnel hewn in the rocks or over a trestle spanning a rushing tributary creek. Native fishing platforms cantilever out over the river, accessible only from the tracks, and powerful tugs push barges through the locks at the dams heading up and down the river. New paintings based on all of this are in the works. More images and a few videos from these forays can be seen on my Instagram feed.

I'm also making another kind of tracks: I'm very pleased to now be represented by Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts who will be featuring my work in upcoming exhibitions and art fairs, as well as online. Stay tuned for more details.

My wonderful gallery representation: LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
And as always, you can also contact me directly by email: info@sethtane.com and follow my occasional photo posts on: Instagram