New York Transit Museum presents a Colorama exhibition at Grand Central Terminal on view through Nov. 1, 2012.
Thirty-six prints of original images will be on view in Grand Central. The prints – measuring up to two feet high and six feet wide – date from the 1960s, arguably the heyday for the Colorama campaign and the advertising industry overall, as well as a time of great social change in America. The images influenced the way Americans viewed photography and ushered in a new era of advertising. They are part of the international traveling exhibition created by George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, which holds the entire Colorama archive.
The Grand Central exhibit also features video footage of photographers with their photos, telling personal stories of creating and unveiling the huge transparencies, and details on how they shot the images.
In the first two decades of Colorama, one constant in all the images was a model using a Kodak camera and photographing family, an activity, or a beautiful scene. Well-known names associated with Colorama included photographer Ansel Adams, artist Norman Rockwell, photographer Elliot Porter, and TV’s Ozzie and Harriett, who appeared in several images. One image that will be on display features a beauty not yet well-known, who is now a household name: ABC’s “World News” anchor and media personality Diane Sawyer was photographed in 1964 upon receiving her Junior Miss Pageant crown in Mobile, Alabama.
Other images in the Transit Museum’s exhibit include the first public photo of the Earth as seen from the moon, and an Ansel Adams photo of farmers harvesting wheat in Oregon.
As groundbreaking as the Kodak advertising campaign was for photography, and for showing the “ideal America,” one component of American life is notably missing upon reflection of the campaign’s early years. Not until 1968 did a Colorama image feature an African-American model. That photo, which will be on display at the exhibit, and one from 1969 that prominently featured an African-American couple were not popular with all passersby. “To Kodak’s surprise, the image generated nasty letters,” Nordström said.
A total of 565 Coloramas were displayed in Grand Central, and photographs were changed out every three weeks until 1990, when the Terminal was renovated and declared a landmark. The final display was a glittering nighttime view of the New York City skyline, with an oversized red apple nestled among the buildings — the only digital enhancement ever created for the Colorama program. The accompanying copy read, “Kodak thanks the Big Apple for 40 years of friendship in Grand Central.” www.mta.info/mta/museum/