O. Winston Link: The Louisiana Photographs

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	Top to bottom: 1930's & 40's Louisiana Photographs by O. Winston Link (click for larger image) - Alligator on a Leash; LSU Sorority Girls

O. Winston Link is best known for his photographs that captured, in dramatic and breath-taking detail, the last of the steam locomotives. These famous images of the Norfolk and Western Railway have been collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as well as some of the most highly esteemed galleries in the country, and they are on display through March 15, 2005 at Louisiana’s Old U.S. Mint in the French Quarter in New Orleans.

The Louisiana State Museum-Old U.S. Mint was selected by Link’s son, Winston Conway Link to exhibit a number of previously unpublished works by his father. These images feature several aspects of life in Louisiana in the 1930s and ‘40s. The photographs in this collection dramatically portray scenes of alligator hunting, shrimping, rice farming, offshore oil drilling and even college life at LSU.

Link graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1937 with a degree in civil engineering, he also served as the photo editor of the school newspaper where he caught the eye of a New York City public relations firm, Carl Byoir and Associates. Due to the Great Depression, jobs were not easy to come by so the new graduate jumped at the chance to work as a photographer for the company.

His work for Byoir and Associates is what brought Link to Louisiana, where he documented different aspects of Louisiana culture and life. He also took photographs on the set of the Cecil B. Demille production of The Buccaneer where he met Vanda Marteal Oglesby. Oglesby, a Louisiana native, had been cast as a double for lead actress Franciska Gaal. She was also a former Miss Ark-La-Tex. Link asked her to model for many of his Louisiana photographs. They later married in 1942.

The exhibit will run from through March 15, 2005. The Louisiana State Museum-Old U.S. Mint is located at 400 Esplanade Ave. in New Orleans. For more information call 504-568-6968 or 800-568-6968 or visit http://lsm.crt.state.la.us.