Photography is under fire. Film is on its last legs, hobbyists in major cities are told their snapshots of American landmarks threaten national security and budgets for newspaper photojournalists are rapidly dwindling amid shrinking circulation.

Despite these trends, Atlanta Celebrates Photography (ACP), a nonprofit active throughout the Atlanta metro area, is soldiering on. According to the mission stated on its website, ACP is “dedicated to the cultivation of the photographic arts and the enrichment of the Atlanta art community.” To these ends, since 1999, ACP has organized and sponsored dozens of events from late September to early November.

Officially titled the Atlanta Celebrates Photography Festival, the event is an invitation to see the work of local artists, listen to lectures from experts in the photography world and a direct call for the community itself to participate in the campaign to keep the Atlanta photography community thriving.

This year’s 151 events range from a photo exploration of yard debris (on display inside Hartfield-Jackson Airport) to large-format photographs of vintage matchbooks (on display at Parker Smith Studios — a gallery five minutes north of Emory). The sheer number of events guarantees that anyone interested will find something that matches their taste.

Just a few minutes from Little Five Points on Elizabeth St. is one particularly intriguing display: Picturing the Beltline, a collection of photographs by Meryl Truett documenting the current state of an old loop of railroad tracks surrounding Atlanta. Upon entering the Barbara Archer Gallery, you’re given a listing of the photographs and an illustrated map of the Beltline pinpointing the location of each photograph, giving perspective to the collection. If you’ve lived in any of the dorms on the northern side of the Emory campus, you know how active the railroads in Atlanta are — especially at night, the day before a midterm.

In fact, long before the city was known as Atlanta, the first settlement in this city was named Terminus because it was the easternmost point in one of the major Southern railroads.

Tracks, both active and obsolete, criss-cross nearly every neighborhood. Truett set about to capture the locations where nature, industry and the railroads intersect. The photos serve as artistic documentation of areas which are slated for redevelopment and soon won’t exist.

Among the first things I noticed were two large displays, each taking up their own wall. The first, “Train Panorama I-V” (shown above), was an impressive look at rusting rail-cars in Glenwood divided into five frames, forcing the mind to stitch the massive scene together. The wide-angle perspective seems to imply that the rail-cars and tracks go on and on, like the circular Beltline itself and the process behind building it, too. Many of the 24 photos of the old tracks seemed familiar, in part because the tracks which run through Emory have similar foliage and, at points, are going through the same decay.

The second large display is a seven-part study of a bridge near Maddox Park which reminded me of the trestle that runs over Old Briarcliff Way on the way to Kroger. The photos were all taken in the summer and early fall, and the contrast of muted greens and rusty metal that dominates the show is an fun juxtaposition against the bare-concrete floor and well-lit, white walls.

Seeing Atlanta from this perspective and from the perspectives on display at the dozens of other galleries and shows which are part of ACP is a great opportunity.

If galleries aren’t your thing, take a stroll through Piedmont Park, where this coming Saturday a public display will allow photographers of all ages and skill levels to push-pin their best work to a wall to be judged for prizes.

Whether or not railways or urban decay interest you, there’s a show or event for everybody during the next few weeks. If you can’t find one, make your own map, go exploring and take your own photos to help keep photography alive.

— Contact Brett Weinstein