Whilst sat in the airport last week (man only last week), wondering why it is that people insist on queuing up an hour before the flight is due, I picked up the airport magazine & aimlessly flicked through. I came across a story (now I realize, about 6 months out of date) about Kodak's Colorama photos that adorned Grand Central Station for four decades.
They were hailed as the largest ever photographs and printed at 18"x60", which is pretty fucking huge. But it's the weirdly idyllic (*ahem* white middle class) America that they portray that really interests me. From packing up the holiday home in the 50s (top photo) to the election of 1960 (4th photo) they show an amazing amount of detail just because they're so big I guess. They also remind me of Gregory Crewdson, whose giant images are staged to the extreme to produce well thought out dialogues in an image. I actually got to see some of his photographs at the C/O gallery in Berlin & I've never been a huge fan of his work because the women always look so abused, but I have to say the detail is breathtaking.
Anyway before this starts sounding like a photography lesson, you can view the full archive online as well as more information about the photographers & the actual equipment used. It's nice flicking through the images & seeing so many weird scenes that feel staged & yet are trying so hard to look real.
Good morning!
I LOVE Gregory Crewdson! We went to the opening for that exhibition and I'm pretty sure I was looking at each photograph for a good twenty minutes haha.
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