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20 The Guardian TXiesday February 6 2001 Obituaries Photographer whose innovative use of flashlighting evoked a sense of the supernatural in images documenting the end of the steam train era Winston Link numbered BF Goodrich, Texaco and the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority among his clients. But it was when he was employed by the Westinghouse Electric Company that he blossomed. According to Alan Siegel: "In 1955, 0 Winston Link was in Taunton, Virginia. This was the beginning of his love affair with the steam engines of the Norfolk and Western Railways. Using patches of brilliant artificial light, Link evokes a sense of the supernatural in his night-time images, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary." Link's discovery of what he called the "magic and mystery of the train at night" led to an obsession.

By 1960, he had taken nearly 2,500 shots of steam passenger and freight trains. His was already the pursuit of a myth, for the great American railway age was giving way to those of the aeroplane and automobile. As if in recognition of this, his most famous single image not focused on a train, dated 1956, is entitled Hot Shot East Bound At lager, West Virginia (right). At an outdoor drive-in cinema, couples smooch in their convertibles before a screen on to which a jet fighter has been subsequently burned in. In the background is the real personalised hero of the action the trail from a In the 1950s, the love of photography of Winston Link, who has died aged 86, combined with his love of movement in a phenomenal documentation of the vanishing world of the American steam locomotive.

His extraordinary technical ability especially in his use of special flashlighting effects in night photography created a paean to a passing era and to the fusion of light and motion that is the essence of photography itself. With his night-time images of railways, he sometimes devoted days to suspending the intricate systems of overhead spotlights and synchronised flash lamps. This was at a time when flash bulbs literally exploded on firing. But it gave his pictures their characteristic stark and startling effect. Born into a modest family in Brooklyn, New York, he trained as a civil engineer and then as a commercial photographer.

From his teens he haunted railway sidings with his camera, perfecting his hobby alongside his trainspotting. Working in black and white, he set up a darkroom in the bathroom and constructed his own enlarger (using camera lenses) to manufacture what were to become his characteristic square-format portraits of his beloved engines, during the period when steam was being supplanted by diesel power. He studied civil engineering at the Polytechnic Institute (now Brooklyn's Polytechnic University) and was picture editor on the student paper, graduating in 1937. Taken on by the Carl Byoir Associates public relations company, he combined commercial work with experimentation with the company's sophisticated studio equipment the lighting as much as the cameras. I Ic put His technical ability to impressive effect during the second world war.

Excluded from the military by partial deafness, he developed a device for detecting submarines via airborne cameras. His Columbia University workplace was at Mineola, close to the Long Island Rail Road. Despite the wartime ban on photographing the movement of any transport that could be used in the war effort, Link found the proximity irresistible, and began taking shots of trains. Postwar, married to Marteal Oglesby and with a son, he freelanced in press, advertising and fashion, specialising in industrial subjects, with something of the fascination displayed by his famous near-contemporary Margaret Bourke-White. Soon he Light fantastic Hot Shot East Bound at lager, West Virginia, one of the most famous works of Winston Link (left) steam train, illuminated like summertime clouds against the black sky.

In his book American Photography 1890-1965, Peter Galassi refers to the image as epitomising the "mythic 1950s with its aura of simultaneous expectation and nostalgia as a kind of apotheosis of the decade's wish Link's use of artificial brilliance and staged theatricality cannot disguise his very real love affair with a passing moment and a passing era. In other respects, his affairs of the heart were less successful. His first marriage ended in divorce in 194-8. In 1984, after a long period of ill health, he married Conchita Mendoza. A decade later she was indicted for grand larceny after the disappearance of more than 1,400 of Link's prints, and for forcible imprisonment following his incarceration in their basement.

In 1996 she was jailed for six to 20 years. Link said she had also removed the negatives of his project on the building of New York's Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which were never recovered. Always beloved by train buffs and documentary photography fans alike, Link was later "rediscovered and reinvented" as a fine art classicist. In 1976, John Szarkowski Appreciation: Lord Justice Lawton "whole life" tariff imposed by a home secretary. For all that he could be at times severe, his was a warm and generous nature.

Drafts sent to him came back marked with the constructive erudition of a caring tutor. He always encouraged, not least by the fact that his mind was always at the cutting edge of change. By comparison with 1961, the higher judiciary now rightly deserves respect for its quality and intellectual integrity. It is hard not to believe that it was men like Fred Lawton who helped bring this about. Louis Blom-Cooper and Terence Morris "guilty but insane" a verdict against which there was then no appeal.

Fred travelled to Belfast in 1959 to make representations to the Stormont administration on his behalf, and the following year Gordon was paroled. It was his delight in the last weeks of his life to know that not only had Gordon's case been referred to the Northern Ireland court of appeal, but that after almost 50 years a gross injustice had at last been righted. Though age wearied Fred's body, his wisdom never ceased to flourish. He saw no merit in the mandatory life sentence for murder; nor did he accept the propriety of a Community campaigner who fought for council tenants' rights Dora Boatemah Brolo, Northern Sicily Lipari Departs 14 April, 5 26 May, 21 July 2001 8 days from Lennox Campbell created a website praising Link as "one of the masters of night photography" and concluding that "his works, as evidenced by technical mastery, equipment ingenuity and creative skill, transcend the photographer and are magnificent photographs Link is survived by a sister, Eleanor Zider; a brother, Albert Link; a son, Winston Conway Link; and a grandchild. Amanda Hopkinson Winston Link, photographer, born 16 2924; died February 3 200 1 Angell Town community 60m of government funds that will, by 2004, see the estate's complete physical regeneration.

Angell Town in 2001 is a far safer and happier place to live and work than the estate of 1977. With a compassion as pronounced as her fighting spirit, Dora continued to offer her support to any resident who walked through her office door until her death. Her work was recognised by an MBE in 1993 and an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University in 1996. Some of the warmest tributes now being paid to Dora have come from Lambeth council and its staff. She is survived by her three sons, and she will be buried next to her mother in Ghana.

Ross Fraser Dora Boatemah, campaigner, born July 22 1957; died January 232001 499 hen Fred Law-ton was appointed to the high court bench in 1961, he was one of the few leading QCs who stood out against the largely featureless and grey landscape that was the judiciary in those days. Unlike most appointed to the bench, he had pursued a practice at the bar that had included a substantial amount of crime. Fred probably knew more about the underworld than any of his brethren, since he had grown up in the shadow of the prisons in which his father had served as the first prison officer ever to be promoted to the governor grade. The Krays, Richardson and Bertie Smalls he had seen their like before. He was perhaps one of the first judges to have grown up in a world that was not refracted through social privilege.

He was certainly the first to visit a mental hospital housing mentally disordered offenders. In the 1960s, when the academic discipline of criminology began to expand in Britain, Fred was among the first judges not only to support it but, by his active participation in seminars, to give it a wider legitimacy from which many in the profession of the law drew back. Although he presented a conservative face to the world, he did energetic work on the Criminal Law Revision Committee, and when it came to judging human behaviour, he was botli radical and visionary in understanding that for the criminal law to remain a vibrant source of justice it must be ever subject to reform and innovation. There were those who remembered Fred having had a Birthdays Mike Batt, composer, arranger, 51; Rabbi Lionel Blue, broadcaster, 71; Peter Cadbury, businessman, 83; Natalie Cole, singer, 51; Zsa Zsa Gabor, actress, 82; Prof Nevil Johnson, political scientist, 72; Patrick Macnee, actor, 79; George Mudie, Labour MP, 56; Denis Norden, scriptwriter, broadcaster, 79; Ronald Reagan, former US president, 90; John Richardson, writer, 77; Brian Simpson, Labour MEP, 48; Jimmy Tarbuck, comedian, 61; Rip Torn, actor and director, 70; FredTrueman, cricketer, 70; Keith Water-house, columnist, playwright, novelist, 72; Ben Waters, boogie woogie pianist, 27; Kevin Whately, actor, 50. youthful dalliance with fascism, though he was not alone among the brightest of his generation in having been seduced, however briefly, by Mosley.

When WVadislav Der-ing, the Auschwitz camp doctor, sued Leon Uris, the author of Exodus, for libel, some in Israel doubted the propriety of his trying the case. They need not have worried: Dering emerged a pathetic and pyrrhic victor. In 1958, Fred went on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists to South Africa to observe the opening of the so-called treason trial at Pretoria. He was utterly sickened at this first sight of apartheid and became its passionate opponent ever after. Fred was not a man to be trifled with: when a noisy group of Welsh nationalist demonstrators attempted to break up the court during the libel action brought by the captain of Convoy PQ17 against a historian they apparently had no idea what the case was about by the end of the afternoon they found themselves in Brixton prison serving three months (later reduced on appeal) for contempt.

In 1968, when the London School of Economics was occupied by students, and he heard that their cause was apparently championed by academics including teachers of law, Fred suggested that, like a farm infected with foot and mouth disease, it ought to be closed down for a while before being But perhaps above all, he was a lawyer passionate for justice and concerned that miscarriages of it should be remedied. In 1953, Iain Hay Gordon (aged 19) was charged with the murder of a judge's daughter in Belfast and found Death Notices DAVIDSON. Mlldrad, on 2nd February 2001 peacefully aged 100 years, widow ol Iho late Dr Goorgo F. Davidson and moth-or ol Donald and Hugh Enquiries to George Ball and Son Tol 0161 432 2131 IRELAND. Beryl, 31st January, suddenly at homo Former Theatre Sister, St James Hospital, dearly loved wile ol Geolfrey.

loving mother ol Karon and Peter. Shan and Mark, Jill and David Private luncrat KELLARD. PeUr Jamos, on 28th January. 2001. at Bournemouth, agod 66 Loving lathor, brother, and grandfather, cherished companion of Sally.

Funeral at St Mark's Bournemouth, at 12 noon on 7th February Flowors or donations lor The Children's Society may bo sent to Doric-Scott. Port-man lodgo Funoral Homo. 755 Chrlstchurch Road, Bournemouth BH7 6AN Births N'OOUAKA MASSAHA. Charian Angel, was born in London on Tuesday 30th January 2001 to tho dolightod lamily ol Jonnitor and Marcollin N'gouaka To placo your announcement telephone) 020 4567 ot tax 020 7713 4707 boVwfton 9 30am and 3pm Mon-Fn bought six images for New York's Museum of Modern Art. In 1982, American Photographer published a major feature, leading to a retrospective that eventually reached the Photographers' Gallery in London.

In 1998, homes, which led to a victory still cherished by council tenants. Angell Town tenants voted against the HAT and looked for other solutions. Dora's unwillingness to compromise on community control led to a 10-year battle between the project, Lambeth council and consultants over redevelopment. Her professional detractors dubbed her "difficult Dora" and Lambeth cut off grant funding from the project in 1997, forcing Dora to rely on state benefit to feed her family. Despite these problems, between 1987 and 2000 the project secured 8m in grants and sponsorship for the estate.

The money transformed 200 unused garages into shop units for community businesses and social facilities, and then financed a community-controlled pilot redevelopment programme. The success of these initiatives led Lambeth council to secure Compassionate Dora Boatemah with young members of the 1987 Dora Boatemah, who has died of a heart attack aged 43, set up the JSL Angell Town Community Project, transforming what had become a notorious Brixton housing estate in the London borough of Lambeth. Central to her work was the the right of tenants to vote on the future of their own estates, and she played a leading role in the national campaign for the "right to vote" -forcing the government to concede ballot rights for council tenants. It was her own experience of living on the estate that drove her. She had been born into the Ghanaian ruling class in 1957 in Kumasi, where her mother worked for Ghana's post-independence leader Kwame Nkrumah.

In 1959, Dora was sent to an English boarding school, and in 1967, after Nkrumah was deposed, her mother joined her in England. Dora inherited her mother's self-confidence and oratorical skill, but when her mother returned to Ghana in 1973, she remained in London. Dora had opted for life on the breadline. In 1977, after periods of homelessness, she, her partner, Earl, and their young son took a flat on the Angell Town estate. Delight in getting a home turned to anger at conditions in what she described as "the Construction of the estate had started in 1974, but it was in decline even before its completion in 1980.

The local newspaper claimed "the estate quickly became a paradise for muggers, vandals, drug addicts and burglars, its council blocks standing as miserable monuments to the town planning failures of the Dora developed a distrust of the politicians, contractors Brolo is an attractive, typically Sicilian coastal town located in the north of Sicily overlooking the Aeolian Islands, about 1 30km east of Palermo. It is an excellent base from which to explore the north of Sicily and the Aeolian island of Lipari. Our package represents amazing value for money. Highlights of the itinerary include Palermo, Cefalu, Taormina, Mt Etna, Tindari and a gastronomic tour to the beautiful Nebrodi Mountain Park. Price includes return charter flights with British Midland from Heathrow to Catania including all payable taxes 7 nights dinner, bed and breakfast accommodation at the 3-star Gattopardo Sea Palace Hotel in Brolo a full range of excursions tour manager throughout.

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LONDON EC2A 4BO Please send mo a brochure on Brolo, Northern Sicily Lipari and consultants who had built and managed the estate, especially when what she viewed as that same establishment re-emerged with "top down" solutions for remedying its problems. So Dora helped create the Angell Town Community Project to campaign for community-controlled redevelopment. In 1987, the Conservative government's then environment secretary, Nicholas Ridley, decided that Angell Town and similar estates should be transferred from council ownership to housing action trusts (HATs), which would redevelop them. Ridley denied tenants the right to vote on the proposals. Most of the communities wanted redevelopment, but no longer trusted politicians or public servants.

After famously storming out of a meeting with Ridley, Dora started fighting for tenants' voting rights on the transfer of their Addross Postcode How many times a month do you buy Iho Observer Plooso lick If you do NOT wish to rocotvo oWoite ol TRAVEL other offers from Tho Guardian or otto orgamsatons approved by The Guardian tMdHti.