Finding Compelling Lines in Photography
Railroad Tracks and Telephone Wires
Vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines in photographs add depth and perspective to your photographs. Use them well, as they can appear to expand your frame into a third dimension.
Man-made elements such as telephone wires and railroad tracks are plentiful around the world. Shooting them so that they are the sole subjects in the frame creates an interesting picture of how we humans live.
Railroads carry goods; wires carry power. That’s the story of our lives–goods, and power, the essence of the human spirit if you choose to look at it that way.
Power lines and railroad tracks provide photographers with the opportunity to sketch with lines.
In the early 20th century Tina Modotti was the creator of a frame of power lines that stretched tightly through the sky–thin vertical lines, graceful and bare. When Modotti shot the power lines in the 1920s, they were new and fresh.
The cables in the photo above show that the lines align and are oriented from the sky to down into the mountain, following a similar direction as to the lines in Modotti’s photograph.
To many, power lines and railroad tracks seem antiquated and stale, nevertheless, their beauty doesn’t go unnoticed. Photographers all over the world still shoot these relics as if they were just built yesterday.