Results tagged “Dan Westergren” from Intelligent Travel Blog

A new exhibit opened today in the National Geographic Museum here in DC at the National Geographic Society headquarters. It's called "Kodachrome Culture: The American Tourist in Europe" and it features wonderfully retro travel images from the pages National Geographic magazine. Here's one of my favorites, a photo of people lounging on the rocky beach at Etretat, France, with the Notre Dame de la Garde chapel atop the chalk cliffs in the background.

From the exhibit:

National Geographic pioneered the use of Kodachrome film in the late 1930s and was among the first to recognize its advantages. The film produced a dye image without the grain found in other color processes, and the photographs could be enlarged without loss of detail. The film was also faster. Instead of requiring a tripod, color shots taken with a compact 35mm camera could be spontaneously composed. By the time American tourism was taking off in the 1950s, National Geographic photographers were adept at using Kodachrome. The images helped National Geographic stand out from other magazines still publishing in black-and-white.
Eventually Kodachrome became the most widely used color film in the United States.

Fast Facts:

The National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., is open Mondays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For information on the "Kodachrome Culture" exhibit, call (202) 857-7588 or visit www.ngmuseum.org.

Read More:

Senior Photo Editor Dan Westergren discussed the story of how National Geographic Explorers came to name Kodachrome Flat in Bryce Caynon, Utah. And check out a gallery of classic Kodachrome images from the National Geographic archives here.

Photo by Howell Walker, from "Normandy Blossoms Anew," National Geographic magazine, May 1959, p. 629

Ever since Monday's announcement by Kodak that they're discontinuing production of Kodachrome film, professional and amateur photographers this week have been busy discussing its demise. Kodachrome was known for its rich color saturation and was widely used by National Geographic photographers in the first decades that the magazine printed in color. In fact, it was so well appreciated that when some explorers came upon a landscape that just demanded to be photographed, they decided to name it after the film. Traveler's Senior Photo Editor Dan Westergren has the details.

A little more than a decade after its introduction, Kodak's Kodachrome transparency film was becoming a favorite of National Geographic explorers in the field. In the September 1949 National Geographic magazine, writer/photographer Jack Breed chronicled the "First Motor Sortie into Escalante Land." Breed's expedition, which included 15 people, three jeeps, two trucks, and 35 horses, headed off into a rugged territory that is visible from Inspiration Point at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. The expedition was hoping to find unknown and yet unnamed geographical oddities in the hidden cliffs and canyons. One local cowman, when asked if there were any natural bridges or arches in the country replied, "Yes, I've heard tell of one or two, but in my 40 years here I've never seen any. I'm always too busy looking for stray cattle or good grass feed to notice the scenery."

There were arches to be discovered but, after only five miles on the first day of their trip they stumbled upon "A Color Photographer's Paradise." Here's what Breed has to say about the area:

It was a beautiful and fantastic country. A mile to the left near the base of the cliff I could see red pinnacles thrust up from the valley floor. The few natives who had been here called this area "Thorny Pasture," But we renamed it "Kodachrome Flat" because of the astonishing variety of contrasting colors in the formations.