Visuals of nature are underappreciated and underanalyzed for their true meaning. At first glance, Antione Beauvillain’s photo of a railroad track appears simple and artistic. Yet, after detailed review the image represents ideas much more complex. The visual of a railroad track in the forest uses the images of color, nature, and pollution, which reveal the abandonment of old traditions and rebirth of nature. 

The first noticeable concept in this image is the color green. Green represents life, health, and the earth. To be more specific, the significance of the green is its relation to the trees. In this image the trees are extremely overgrown, proving that no one has been in this area in a while. To the right of the tracks there is a pile of dead branches stacked up and covered with overgrowth. The branches show that someone may have cared about the up keeping of this abandon area at some point, but that time has passed. Considering all of the trees are fully green and lively, it seems to be summer. Another sign of summer is the bright sun hitting the trees on the left side, making their leaves a little lighter green than the rest. The color pink is present in the bottom left of the photo. It is hard to tell what the object is, but one could argue it is a flower. A pink flower hidden in the scene of green and brown represents a sliver of hope. The overgrowth is almost hiding the pink, but it could be the final sign of nature recovering after they built the tracks. 

The railroad track is brown and contrasts with the lively green of the trees. The rusty metal and broken wood leads the audience to believe man built the track a long time ago. The overgrowth on the track shows this area is forgotten and possibly represents the uprising of cars in place of railroad travel. The railroad track portrays to the audience what once was. This idea creates emotion and wonder in the viewer of what the track looked like when it was in use. The railroad track is also the center of the photo, and from the perspective the photographer took the photo, the tracks seem to be never ending. Though this track is unused, its skeleton will always remain as a reminder of the country’s past technology. One could also argue this track is the road less taken because of the uneasiness of the unknown future. Centered far back between the trees is a bridge that goes over the railroad tracks. It is faint and only really visible after zooming in on the photo. The bridge could also represent the transition from old to new technology. Contrary to this, one could argue the bridge could be the alternative route, the road most taken, because it is perpendicular to the tracks. Instead of removing the tracks and building a road for cars in its place, man built a bridge to bypass the tracks, leaving history behind.

Pollution is evident in the image almost immediately. Centered in the photo and the railroad track is a can. This can was carelessly thrown away on the ground without any regard for the beautiful nature it is spoiling. The can may be an empty spray paint container, which suggests people may be vandalizing and polluting the earth even more. Instead of spray paint, it could be an old soda can from when this was an active track. To the right of the tracks, there is a blue plastic bag. This bag is another indication of pollution to the environment. The color of the blue bag is significant. Blue over other colors represent the encouragement of recycling and reuse for a cleaner environment. The railroad tracks as a whole could represent the world moving on from old inventions to new ones. Though this change does not come without positive and negative consequences. For example, trains to cars. Because cars emit much more toxic fumes than the trains do, this image could be showing one of the major causes of pollutants on earth. The negatives of the technological reform are the significantly higher pollution it creates from more trash and toxic chemicals. However, the positive is the growth of other things such as this area in nature, along with technology. Now that this track is abandoned, the earth has a chance to repossess the land where the tracks sit and grow back. At the top of the image there is a tree branch that has grown long enough to reach over the railroad tracks. There are many other branches like this further down the tracks. This branch shows nature trying to grow back together although the tracks split it. 

From the multiple colors and obvious signs of nature’s efforts to overcome pollution, the audience can see how the photo is representing much more than what meets the eye. The hidden aspects of the image are sharing a message that the viewer can interpret in many different ways. Yet, the photo clearly stands to show the ghost of a railroad track being overcome by the leafy woods.
