William Cope – Cement – PhotoBook Journal

Review by Paul Anderson •

In 1971, singer-songwriter Steve Goodman penned the song “City of New Orleans,” which poetically captures a ride on the Illinois Central Railroad southbound out of Chicago. Wrapped up in the lyrics are images of Americana and the local landscape as the train “Rolls along past houses, farms and fields.” Much more than the train itself, this song captured the soul of that rail line and the society it served. The first two lines of the refrain tell it all:

Good morning, America, how are you?

So don’t you know me, I’m your native son

Much in that same vein, but in a different medium, photographer William Cope has published a series of photobooks called The Rail Way that capture the cultural essence of four rail lines, one in Australia and three in India. They tell interesting stories about unique and colorful railways that had their beginnings in the late 19th or early 20th centuries, and were still in operation when these photographs were taken in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The titles of the books are Cement, Mountain: Matheran, Mountain: Darjeeling, and Mountain: Ootacamund.

Each book is, in effect, a brief historical survey. All have photographs of a rail line, surrounding scenery, rail cars, locomotives, railroad workers, passengers and civilians. The images are accompanied by substantial text that discuss the line’s historical importance and impact.

The subject of this review is the book Cement. This book focuses on a short railway spur in Portland, New South Wales, Australia. It transported coal, lime and finished cement into and out of the Commonwealth Portland Cement Company. The building materials carried by this spur line played a significant part of the development of Sydney and the surrounding area.

The book begins with a fascinating seven page historical survey of the Commonwealth Portland Cement Company, providing important context for the photographs that follow. Also described is the manufacture of the cement itself, the raw materials needed, and the impact that this particular factory had on the local economy, culture, and environment.

The photographs were taken over a few days on trips to the Portland area between 1973 and 1976. They are documentary in nature and designed to tell a story. These photographs are aesthetically pleasing, featuring huge columns of steam rising from locomotives as they wend their way through the cement works. The images are both in color and in dramatic black and white.

This book, although very modest in size and appearance, is quite an interesting combination of text and photographs. It is sequenced well, with background text placed ahead of the photographs, and substantial notes provided at the end.

Two other books in this series will be reviewed in the PhotoBook Journal next week. They are Mountain: Matheran and Mountain: Darjeeling. The book Mountain: Ootacamund was not available for review.

This book will be of interest to railway buffs, railroad historians, and those who enjoy photographing trains.

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Paul Anderson is a photographer/digital artist, working in Hermosa Beach, CA

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William Cope – Cement

Photographer: William Cope (born in Australia, currently resides in Champaign, Illinois)

Essays: Historical notes related to the short rail line connecting the Portland Cement Company to the main rail line.

Text: English

Perfect Bound, 8 inches by 8 inches, 48 pages, 26 photographs, an open edition, notes and a list of photographs are included.

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Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are under copyright by the authors and publishers.