Amethyst Twilight: 1942

Thats a kerosene oil switchlamp. No on/off switch.

"Nikon EM can achieve the same shot with given circumstances"

Not in 1942 it couldn't. It is not the camera but the person using it that creates the image.

This is the work of a master. That's obvious, but I had to say it.

this is simply stunning. one of my favorite photos as well.

If you look close you will see two lanters that left the trail of lights....One lantern has a freshers battery in it and thus produces a slightly brighter trail. One man was standing outside the shanty and the other was inside (probably getting a switching list, they both walked to the right where they were probably doing switching.

[The other shots show kerosene lanterns, not battery-powered. - Dave]

Nikon EM can achieve the same shot with given circumstances

"how'd he manage to have the lantern in the foreground be in sharp focus when it is in a field of soft-focus cinders?"

Photoshop maybe?

Just kidding. I'm guessing he did it by tilts.

Could the lantern have been flashing perhaps? This could prevent it from being overexposed. Or perhaps Jack knew when it was turned on and setup the exposure so that the lantern would be switched off for the first portion of the exposure and switched on for the second portion of the same exposure.

I've seen a couple photos on Shorpy of railroad yards that have the same light trails like this one. I'm assuming that they were captured by leaving the shutter open longer (hence the double image of the rail car on the left), but what were they created with? Were they lanterns being carried around? Was this a Jack Delano trademark? In any case, beautiful photo, and one more example I'll be directing people to when I next praise this site.

[Yes, lanterns. - Dave]

Looks like he tilted his focal plane to keep the ground in focus off into the distance (note the top of the building is also out of focus)

Doesn't matter how it was done, I wouldnt understand it anyway.

Exposing for that scene would likely leave the lantern badly over-exposed. I'd bet that the lantern was masked and the focus adjusted mid-exposure.

yeah - i'm a big fan of delano, too...

but..

how'd he manage to have the lantern in the foreground be in sharp focus when it is in a field of soft-focus cinders? odd.

... my favorite Delano shot ever.