This photograph captures the grandeur of Chicago Transit Authority’s rail system, while also capturing the ingenuity of its integration into Chicagoan infrastructure. The winding, elevated track is commonplace across the “L,” enabling trains to dodge skyscrapers and breeze over notoriously congested streets, creating incredible photo ops. The CTA’s Holiday Train navigates the S-curve above Hubbard Street, joining with Wells Street, as it makes its southbound approach into Merchandise Mart station, its final intermediate stop before hitting the Loop on Dec. 4, 2019.

I have long been fascinated by the relationships between cities and their industries. With steel production transitioning over to electric arc furnace mini mills, many cities are left with skeletons of abandoned integrated mills, a physical reminder of how industry changes beget changes in the cities’ fortunes. The iron and steel industry has been an important part of Cleveland’s landscape for many years. But in the middle of Cleveland, this fully integrated steel mill lives on as a testament to America’s urban industrial heritage and as a part of its future. Cleveland Works Railroad “The Crow” switches ArcelorMittal’s blast furnace with SW1001s Nos. 217 and 203 at dusk on Aug. 18, 2019.

My interpretation of “In the City” is “in THE city.” “THE” city for trains is Chicago. One of Chicago’s major commuter rail terminals was LaSalle Street Station, used by New York Central Railroad, Nickel Plate Road, and Rock Island — linking east to west and north to south. In this photograph, a passenger finds solitude on the platform awaiting the arrival of her Metra train on Track 2; a candid capture of life and its surroundings in a public area.

Returning from a day of railfan photography March 22, 2017, in Tehachapi, Calif., a friend insisted, while passing through Los Angeles, that we stop at Union Pacific’s small 4th Street Yard, where normally a set of power ties up on Meyers Street lead. Sure enough, we encountered three unoccupied UP gensets, obviously a favorite among taggers, whose work also appeared on the adjacent concrete wall along the Los Angeles River. I shot perhaps a dozen frames with the LA skyline. As we prepared to leave, I suggested the photos weren’t worth the time we spent shooting them. “It is what it is,” my friend replied. Graffiti, environmentally friendly locomotives, a downtown skyline, and a river lined with concrete. Welcome to the big city.

Living among 8.3 million people, I’m conscious of the high-density housing and transportation systems. I’m curious how New Yorkers live, how they move, and what they feel. Do they accept the life we’ve been given in all its magnificence and its despair? Do they cope? Find love? Find that dream? As they travel by train to their high-rises, it’s my hope they do. This is an eastbound No. 7 train that has just left Queensboro Plaza station on Oct. 12, 2017. Note the two-man window crew in the upper right.

The rails, river, and roads of Cincinnati seldom slumber, and this night was no exception. Norfolk Southern Railway northbound train No. 288 crosses the Ohio River into the Queen City on its journey to Detroit.

The subway’s importance in the life of New York City cannot be overstated. In this image, a multitude of people from Queens are relying on it to begin their workday in Manhattan. The elevated line is surrounded by businesses and residences that say “city.” Metropolitan Transportation Authority New York City No. 7 Flushing Line viewed from Woodside, Queens, at 6:30 a.m., Nov. 2, 1998.

Runner-up: Having spent my adult life within the boundaries of a large city like Denver, once I began photographing trains, it was natural to venture into the mountains and countryside looking for wide-open spaces and railroad tracks. Scouting these scenes had trained my eye to eliminate noise and man-made things save for the rails themselves. For “In the City,” I spent many unfruitful weeks trying to work around the noise, when in the end, all I had to do was work within it. An empty BNSF Railway coal train cuts through the heart of Denver, known as “the Corridor,” on May 30, 2020.