Canadian Pacific Freight Departing Smith Falls, Smith Falls, Ontario, Canada
1991
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 23.5 × 28.58 cm (9 1/4 × 11 1/4 in.) mat: 54.61 × 44.45 cm (21 1/2 × 17 1/2 in.) framed: 59.69 × 49.53 cm (23 1/2 × 19 1/2 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of the Artist and David Zwirner
Accession Number
2020.158.8
Art Historical Context
In 1991, American photographer James Welling capturedCanadian Pacific Freight Departing Falls, Smith Falls,, Canada*, a striking gelatin silver print that freezes a moment of industrial motion in rural Ontario. This 23.5 × 28.58 cm image depicts a Canadian Pacific freight train pulling away from the historic town of Smiths Falls, a key rail hub since the 19th century Welling, renowned for his experimental approaches to photography—blending abstraction with precise observation—here documents the everyday poetry of transportation in late-20th-century North America. The gelatin silver print medi...
About the Artist
James Welling
James Welling, born in 1951 in Hartford, Connecticut, emerged as one of the most innovative voices in contemporary American photography through a multidisciplinary path that shaped his experimental ethos. He began his artistic training at Carnegie-Mellon University, studying drawing under Gandy Brodie, a second-generation Abstract Expressionist, before exploring modern dance at the University of P...