The Railroad Photography of Donald W. Furler

The Railroad Photography of Donald W. Furler showcases the black-and-white imagery of a master of the craft. Furler (1917-1994) grew up in New Jersey and helped pioneer the “action shot” to show trains at speed. He faithfully and dramatically documented the final decade of steam operations in the northeastern United States with technically-superior and often creative images portraying the trains in their environments. While his work appeared frequently in early issues of Trains magazine in the 1940s and 1950s, it has rarely been seen since. As someone who helped write the rules for railroad action photography, an examination of Furler’s photography is long overdue.