17:54 GMT, 28 July 2012
Nostalgic photos show 1960s family bliss, young love, and summer vacations for camera company's 'Colorama' campaign
Family vacations, bike rides to the beach, overseas adventures, trips to the zoo, a day on the water…
All these scenes of unbridled happiness became ‘Kodak moments’ thanks to some genius marketing clearly
showing that photography was no longer confined to professionals in studios but for the layperson keen to
capture daily life.
The ground-breaking Kodak Colorama campaign, which ran from 1950-1990, depicted a wholesome, family-
orientated, idyllic version of American life.
And the hugely successful advertising campaign found an incredible home in New York City’s Grand Central
Terminal, where the panoramic images hung in the main concourse.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=frm00002-64.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/frm00002-64.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=frm00003-52.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/frm00003-52.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=frm00004-36.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/frm00004-36.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
For four decades, the 18-foot high, 60-foot wide images – billed as ‘the world’s largest photographs’ – hung
in the terminal and were changed out every three weeks for new images.
A total of 565 Colorama images were displayed in the iconic New York building with hundreds of commuters
and travellers streaming past the photos every day.
Now, for the first time, the Coloramas are returning to Grand Central – albeit in more manageable sizes.
Thirty-eight prints of the original images, measuring two feet high and six feet wide and dating from the 1960s,
are part of an exhibition created by George Eastman House Museum.
'The Coloramas taught us not only what to photograph, but also how to see the world as though it were a
photograph,’ says Alison Nordström, Eastman House curator of photographs.
‘They served to manifest and visualize values that even then were seen as nostalgic and in jeopardy, salvageable
only through the time-defying alchemy of Kodak cameras and film,’ she explains.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=frm00005-30.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/frm00005-30.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=frm00006-25.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/frm00006-25.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=frm00007-21.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/frm00007-21.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Nostalgic photos show 1960s family bliss, young love, and summer vacations for camera company's 'Colorama' campaign
Family vacations, bike rides to the beach, overseas adventures, trips to the zoo, a day on the water…
All these scenes of unbridled happiness became ‘Kodak moments’ thanks to some genius marketing clearly
showing that photography was no longer confined to professionals in studios but for the layperson keen to
capture daily life.
The ground-breaking Kodak Colorama campaign, which ran from 1950-1990, depicted a wholesome, family-
orientated, idyllic version of American life.
And the hugely successful advertising campaign found an incredible home in New York City’s Grand Central
Terminal, where the panoramic images hung in the main concourse.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=frm00002-64.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/frm00002-64.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=frm00003-52.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/frm00003-52.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=frm00004-36.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/frm00004-36.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
For four decades, the 18-foot high, 60-foot wide images – billed as ‘the world’s largest photographs’ – hung
in the terminal and were changed out every three weeks for new images.
A total of 565 Colorama images were displayed in the iconic New York building with hundreds of commuters
and travellers streaming past the photos every day.
Now, for the first time, the Coloramas are returning to Grand Central – albeit in more manageable sizes.
Thirty-eight prints of the original images, measuring two feet high and six feet wide and dating from the 1960s,
are part of an exhibition created by George Eastman House Museum.
'The Coloramas taught us not only what to photograph, but also how to see the world as though it were a
photograph,’ says Alison Nordström, Eastman House curator of photographs.
‘They served to manifest and visualize values that even then were seen as nostalgic and in jeopardy, salvageable
only through the time-defying alchemy of Kodak cameras and film,’ she explains.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=frm00005-30.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/frm00005-30.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=frm00006-25.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/frm00006-25.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=frm00007-21.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/frm00007-21.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
