To many younger folks here, this will mean nothing. To many of us, it's a grievous loss....

Richard Steinheimer, without dispute one of the great rail photographers that elevated rail photography away from 3/4 wedge or roster shots and into the era of greats like O. Winston Link, Jim Boyd, Ted Benson, and others, died this afternoon of complications from Alzheimer's Disease.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Steinheimer

http://railphoto-art.org/ (temporarily set as a tribute to him)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Richard-S ... ts&sk=info

Amen. Sorry that I never had the honor of meeting him, but feel as if we were good friends through his excellent work. One of the greatest, he will be missed.

Respectfully,
Burlington John

I hadn't looked at Steinheimer's work in a while, but took a look at it again today via the link above. What stands out now is that like O. Winston Link, Steinheimer didn't just photograph trains, he photographed a whole world with trains and the people around them as the focus.

I wonder if he and Link ever got together and compared notes. . .

My condolences to Shirley Burman and all those who knew him.

God bless both of you Richard and Shirley.
Thank you for showing us all of your love over the years !!
My deep condolences to Shirley and everyone during this very difficult time.
I feel so deeply honored that I was able to see you both at Winterail all those years !
My deepest love and respect for this truly MAGICAL time !

Dick and Shirley made me and many others feel like extended family !
I feel like that is the ultimate HONOR and GIFT !!
Thank you so very very much again for all those magical years.
I feel like it was the ultimate honor to share those times with you !
---- Daniel

Being one of the "younger people", it does matter. It's always sad to see someone die, especially when they are known by those in the railfan community and by the people who knew them. Having lost my fair share of people in the last year, I can empathize with Richard's family, even though I don't know them. My regards to the Steinheimer family, and I hope that they manage to be able to get through this part of their lives.

Looking at some of his photos, I hope I can use those as inspiration for my own work, preferably future work, as my current photos are terrible compared to the work by veteran photographers like Mr. Steinheimer. Man, i could use some pratice...

The Los Angeles Times published a nice obituary of Richard Steinheimer in the Sunday May 22, 2011, issue. It included a couple of his photographs and filled up most of a page.

Here is the link to the web version of the obituary. Make sure to check out the linked photos.

Richard Steinheimer dies at 81; pre-eminent railroad photographer