Billed as “The World's Largest Photographs,” Eastman Kodak's 18-by-60-foot Coloramas brought photography to the masses with a spectacular display of communicative power. During its 40-year run in Grand Central Terminal in New York City, the Colorama program presented a panoramic photo album of American scenes, lifestyles and achievements from the second half of the twentieth century.
The majority of the many Colorama photographs were taken by Kodak’s own photographers. They were often staged – as were it a movie – and sometimes it took several photographers working together to produce the massive photos. They were built up from 41 smaller individual photographs and spliced together.
My understanding is Normal Rockwell, who actually took photos to be models for his paintings, directed this, and is probably the only one of Norman Rockwell photographs that was taken without the artist’s intention of every turning it into a painting. It was called “Closing A Summer Cottage.”
Well, this one was taken in 1957…and many of my friends and family know that perplexed father at the back of the station wagon - that’s my father-in-law, Dick Shone.
The shot was taken at 205 Dune Road, Quogue, NY and here is an article on what the restoration of this cottage involved, from Architect Magazine: https://www.architectmagazine.com/project-gallery/norman-rockwells-closing-a-summer-cottage-revisited
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