Culture
Capturing the View Along the Underground Railroad
A new photography book visualizes what those 19th-century routes look like today.
Much has been written about the Underground Railroad, but visual documentation is scant. In a new book, Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad ($40, Princeton Architectural Press), the photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales documents one possible path north—from Louisiana to Ontario—and maps this 1,400-mile trek through woods, swamps, and the fleeting moments of respite a traveler may have found on their journey out of slavery.
The series of photographs flips from deserted plantations in Louisiana to empty railroad bridges in Indiana, with every image cloaked by dark light. The images, shot at night, emote vastness and strangeness—you can feel how remote these places might have felt to travelers passing through.