![train](https://strudelmedialive.com/images/uploads/strudelmedialive_david-oxton_9_sea-st-800px-2.jpg)
![photo from train](https://strudelmedialive.com/images/uploads/strudelmedialive_01_track-record-by-james-prochnik-800px.jpg)
Vantage Points
David Oxton and James Prochnik: Trainspotting
Registration for this event is closed, but you can join our mailing list if you'd like to be informed of the next section of this class.
North of Boston, commuter trains roll through suburban neighborhoods, fly past backyards, and sometimes race by homes so close it looks like people hanging out on their back porch could reach out and touch them. Photographer and educator David Oxton wondered what everday life in such close proximity to these enormous, rushing trains looked like. His curiosity resulted in two projects: Trackside: Backyards and Trackside: Stations.
James Prochnik’s photo project started from the opposite perspective — inside the train looking out. When Prochnik’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, he began taking frequent trips on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor from New York City to Washington, DC to help out his father. These trips were melancholy, and he often didn’t feel like doing much but stare out the window. What he saw sparked a growing fascination — first at the expressive graffiti giving voice to the communities they passed through, and later at the whole sprawling mess. He began making pictures, using his practice as a street photographer to find moments and stories in the trackside landscapes speeding by. Track Record, the result of those pictures, is a unique journey through America’s urban, industrial, and rural backyards.
In this free talk co-presented by the NYC Photo Community and StrudelmediaLive, these two photographers will share their photos and train stories.
Watch the recording of this talk
![](https://strudelmedialive.com/images/uploads/strudelmedialive_portrait_of_david-oxton_01-600px.jpg)
David Oxton is a Boston area photographer and educator who creates photographs that blend constructed tableaus with candid moments. Images from his latest Trackside project have been exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Montserrat College of Art, and Lesley University; and published in Shots Magazine and Cape Ann magazine. David — a commercial and editorial photographer for 10 years before concentrating on fine art photo projects — lives and teaches in the northeastern corner of Massachusetts.
![](https://strudelmedialive.com/images/uploads/James-Prochnik_by-Anja-Hitzenberger_11-6-23-cropped-600px.jpg)
James Prochnik is a Brooklyn-based photographer who uses photography as a means to explore the world outside, focusing on people, place, memory and the poetry of the everyday. His photographs have been published in The New York Times, Vice Media, Lenscratch, USA Today, and Shots Magazine and have been exhibited in galleries around the country. In 2019, James launched NYC Photo Community — a weekly newsletter listing photography events, workshops, exhibitions, and opportunities for photographers everywhere. James has been a regular guest lecturer on ethics and aesthetics in street photography at the University of Vermont.
James teaches street photography, poems and pictures, richness of light, and more for StrudelmediaLive.