Behind the Lens: My Experience with Emmett Kelly’s Train Car

Emmett Kelly was an American Circus performer who created the character Weary Willie. In 1923 he brought his character of a defeated Hobo to life as a clown. Kelly joined the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1942 where he was the featured act until 1950’s.

The Emmett Kelly train car, Clarkdale, AZ. I shot this black-and-white picture with my 8×10 view camera a few years ago. A large framed print of this image was auctioned off for a fundraiser at the Phoenix Art Museum. One morning, I was watching a local news channel when they were doing a piece on a custom home somewhere in the Valley. The photographer wandered into the master bedroom, and above the bed was this photograph. I was blown away seeing it and was thrilled that it was displayed so beautifully in the home.

I loved the photograph, but I sometimes return to places I’ve shot to possibly make it better. When I went back, I was kicked out before I even had the equipment out of the car. The yard manager said it was a live rail back there so I couldn’t be there. He told me I could call the director of the depot and get permission, so I did. She said, “absolutely not.”

If there is a moral to the story it would be shoot first and apologize later.