Bob Witt wrote:

I offer the suggestion that photographers usually take photos of what
interest them. Their mission is not to record a random sample of the
freight cars that pass through a given area. Wheel reports and other
similar records are the "hard data". Photographs are someone's vision
of their "world".

Of course. Who could argue?
But if a photographer takes, say, a thousand images and no bias is
obvious; or if we have the work of numerous photographers in an area,
none of whose bias is obvious, what "vision of the world" is at stake?
Are these photo sets NECESSARILY unrepresentative?
Bob, if you trouble to read the introduction to the NMRA book
presenting the Bob Charles collection (unfortunately, the
photographer's name is unknown), you will find that the photos in fact
ARE rather representative of the statistics Messrs. Gilbert and Nelson
have developed for us.
Of course a particular set of photographs may be far from
representative; but let us NOT conclude therefrom that ALL sets of
photographs are without statistical value.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@signaturepress.com
Publishers of books on railroad history




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