{"id":433,"date":"2021-12-02T10:11:44","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T16:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rlhs.org\/WP\/?page_id=433"},"modified":"2023-11-01T09:16:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T14:16:14","slug":"dick-dorn-2019-fred-a-jane-r-stindt-photography-award","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rlhs.org\/WP\/dick-dorn-2019-fred-a-jane-r-stindt-photography-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Dick Dorn: 2019 Fred A. & Jane R. Stindt Photography Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to Fred A. and Jane R. Stindt Photography Awards<\/a><\/p>\n

R&LHS\u2019s Fred A. and Jane R. Stindt Photography Award is presented annually for a significant body of work that makes an outstanding contribution to the photographic interpretation of North American railroading. This year\u2019s awardee is a photographer whose work \u2013 though it spans half a century and covers many railroad subjects \u2013 is indelibly imprinted on our minds for a single theme: winter railroading. Dick Dorn\u2019s images of trains battling the elements are dramatic and memorable; they speak, too, of his determination and of the endurance required to get them.\u00a0<\/span>Photographer and historian Shirley Burman Steinheimer tells of her first meeting with Dorn at a book signing for her husband Dick Steinheimer and Ted Benson\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Growing Up with Trains II,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>there he was \u201con the cover, squatting in the snow with his dog Tarke, ready to photograph the westbound Amtrak. He had no aversion to doing what it takes to get the picture including freezing his rump.\u201d Neither does Dorn have any aversion to being associated with snowdrifts, rotary plows, and flangers; on the contrary, he says, \u201cIt opened doors for me.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Born in 1946, Dorn is a native\u00a0<\/span>Northern<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>Californian (he prefers the italics). His interest in railroading was sparked by family dinners at Spenger\u2019s Restaurant, located opposite the Berkeley SP train station. He and his brother were entranced by the trains they saw there, though it wasn\u2019t until college that he made the decision to focus on photography rather than model railroading. He graduated from Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., with a B.S. degree in Fisheries Management. But it was elementary school teaching he loved and devoted a 35-year career to. His classroom had windows that opened out to views of the Sacramento Northern station in Yuba City and he admits there were occasions when his teaching included aspects of rail photography.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Former Editor and Publisher Kevin Keefe in\u00a0<\/span>Trains<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>magazine once dubbed him \u201cthe Ansel Adams of Donner.\u201d Yosemite Valley was to Adams as Donner Pass is to Dorn, but there\u2019s more in that epithet besides black & white photography, careful composition and lighting, and a passion for the outdoors. Adams once wrote that \u201cthe highest function\u201d of photography is \u201cto relate the world of nature to the world of man\u2026;\u201d Dorn\u2019s photography does just that. Mostly self-taught, Dorn thrived under the mentorship of Steinheimer and Benson. \u201cStein had a huge, gigantic influence on my photography,\u201d he says. He carried a copy of Steinheimer\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Backwoods Railroads of the West<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>with him on railfan trips for inspiration. \u201cTed had a giant influence on me as well. Early on, he critiqued my shooting and printing and helped me develop darkroom techniques.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dorn\u2019s work includes two books he co-authored: the first, with Richard Steinheimer:\u00a0<\/span>Diesels Over Donner<\/i>:\u00a0<\/span>the Mountain Soul of the Southern Pacific<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>(Interurban Press, 1989); and\u00a0<\/span>72-82:<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>Western Pacific\u2019s Final Decade<\/i>, with Ted Benson, Dale Sanders and Dave Stanley (White River, 2014). He has penned more than 25 articles for a wide array of magazines, including\u00a0<\/span>Classic Trains<\/i>,\u00a0<\/span>CTC Board<\/i>,\u00a0<\/span>Passenger Train Journal<\/i>,\u00a0<\/span>Pacific Rail News<\/i>,\u00a0<\/span>Railfan & Railroad<\/i>, and\u00a0<\/span>Trains.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor outstanding achievement as a photographer and dedication as a role model in the railfan community,\u201d Dorn received Winterail\u2019s annual\u00a0<\/span>Hall of Fame Award<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>in 2006. The very same day he was informed of his\u00a0<\/span>Stindt Photography Award<\/i>, he learned he\u2019d been awarded the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Guy Dunscomb Award for Outstanding Achievement<\/i>. \u201cI was on pins and needles and I could hardly sleep that night,\u201d he confesses. He also has the distinction of having a photographic technique named after him, coined by Ted Benson:\u00a0<\/span>Dick Dorn Memorial Sidelighting<\/i>. It refers to his talent for capturing the glint of light reflected off the sides of railroad equipment. Most often seen in his black & white photography, it\u2019s also present in some of his color work. Its purpose, he explains, is to \u201cmake rolling stock jump off the paper at you.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dorn is not a railfan who bemoans the passage of time and complains about graffiti or color scheme changes. \u201cRailroading is as interesting today as when I took my first picture,\u201d he claims. \u201cPhotography should be enjoyable and when it\u2019s not anymore, that\u2019s when I\u2019ll stop.\u201d Not out of place are these comments from Shirley Burman Steinheimer, who remembers how much Dorn\u2019s visits to her ailing husband were appreciated. \u201cWhen Stein could no longer drive, Dorn would take him on railfan expeditions, giving me a much-needed break in my caretaking duties. I saw [Dorn\u2019s] beautiful railroad images, heard of his travels and read his stories, but mostly I saw his heart. And as Stein lost most of his ability to speak, he still could murmur to me when Dorn had visited, that is a \u2018good guy.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Gregory P. Ames<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to Fred A. and Jane R. Stindt Photography Awards R&LHS\u2019s Fred A. and Jane R. Stindt Photography Award is presented annually for a significant body of work that makes an outstanding contribution to the photographic interpretation of North American railroading. This year\u2019s awardee is a photographer whose work \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":423,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/template-fullwidth.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-433","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rlhs.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rlhs.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rlhs.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rlhs.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rlhs.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rlhs.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"https:\/\/rlhs.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/433\/revisions\/434"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rlhs.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rlhs.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}