黑料不打烊

Between 2012 and 2022 McNair Evans took 11 trips around the United States traveling by Amtrak, systematically covering every route within their passenger rail system with a cumulative 1,050 hours spent onboard. Photographing fellow passengers, passing landscapes, Amtrak workers, and interior train scenes, Evans鈥� photographs communicate a persistent hope within this once ubiquitous form of travel.

Prints are exhibited unframed and in a range of sizes 鈥� adhered directly to the wall and laid out in a lyrical aesthetic. Collaboration between photographer and subject comprises a strong component of the work, and the installation reflects the togetherness of train travel and Evans鈥� immersive process. Facsimiles of stories that Evans solicited from fellow passengers along his many trips are installed in a loose, interactive manner intended to encourage personal engagement.    

Train interiors are inherently liminal spaces 鈥� while the passengers change, the backdrop stays the same 鈥� the effect is democratizing. While there is an ethos of in-between-ness to all forms of travel, for the simple reason that it鈥檚 what happens between 鈥渉ere鈥� and 鈥渢here,鈥� train travel exaggerates this experience simply by its slowness and because the trains themselves are tethered to the ground, moving deliberately through swaths of roadless landscape. Awash in intoxicating light, Evans鈥檚 images elicit a sense of longing 鈥� a palpable feeling of being together alone. They remind us how to share public space for a common advantage and evoke a profound impulse to linger.