On a cold morning in 1902 Alfred Stieglitz photographed an outbound New York Central railroad train and entitled his image, ‘The Hand of Man.’  No men were to be seen in the picture but their presence was felt. This was one of the very first modernist images in the new artistic discipline of photography.  ‘The Hand of Man’ also recognised unequivocally man’s part in the absorbing drama of steam-age transportation, and in that regard it was also the first of its kind.

Images © Robert Elling Field unless stated.