Summer of '78

Dec 19, 2018 12:53 PM

BobPogo

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Six months ago, a conservancy official cleaning out an office came across two cardboard boxes that had been sitting around for decades

Inside were 2,924 color slides, pictures made in parks across New York City’s five boroughs late in the summer of 1978.

No one had looked at them for 40 years.

Here are some.

New Yorkers drank beer and licked Popsicles and smoked weed.

More pics in the sauce : https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/27/nyregion/newyork-parks-photos.html

Amazing! Thank you for bringing these to our attention

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I wish I had known about the exhibit in time to see it. Thanks for the sharing and the sauce.

7 years ago | Likes 251 Dislikes 0

What a find!

7 years ago | Likes 38 Dislikes 1

We still drink beer, lick popsicle sticks and smoke weed. Nothing’s changed.

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I wonder if any people in the photos were identified.

7 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

Hey look, a buncha humans acting like humans. What a buncha humans, amirite?

7 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Reminds me of the Vivian Maier find

7 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

New Yorker here, um, yeah, we're still doing those things! Great pics though!

7 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Where are the Warriors? They need to come out and plaaaaaaay.

7 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Second to last is a crack pipe.... you don’t light a bowl of weed from the bottom.

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

I miss that Old New York.

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Images like these are what Paul Simon was singing about in "Kodachrome" - https://youtu.be/qrRRhoS3KFk

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Maybe it's the contrast between red brick and blue jeans, but #5, I mean look at that thing.

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

this is awesome stuff... back when even new york city was mostly tolerable

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The year i was made

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

nice upvote for weed

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

That's not weed...

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

That pier is splinter city!

7 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

More like the Tetanus Maze

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I found it kinda weird that they called this “uncurated” when it’s been woven together into a narrative here and then sorted for an exhibit

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

This is amazing.

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

That 5th pic doesn’t look like they are smoking weed, the flame is on the bottom, uh oh!!

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Not sure who downvoted you, but you're absolutely right. It's not weed. It's either crack, meth, or freebasing coke/heroin.

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

In the link: Is it wrong the I read it as ‘big brown adults double Dutched’ ??

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I found that one a bit odd. I’ve never heard a white person call someone “grown” before, and it’s on the pic of the black people. Just me?

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Subway full of graffiti, garbage men on strike, blackouts, a magical time.

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Really, really cool.

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

That belongs in a museum

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

The city was run down for a long time.

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

They licked popsicles?? Whaaa????

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Lol those two are smoking meth. Wtf?

7 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 2

The third one looks to be the boardwalk on Staten Island.

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Source says Coney!

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Some shocking quality for 1978

7 years ago | Likes 115 Dislikes 4

It also really really helps to have the camera steady and in focus, something I'm bad at with film cameras.

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

My grandma had some Polaroids from, hmm, had to be the early 50s? Clarity in them always blows my mind.

7 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

Good cameras have been a thing for a while. Plus these being on slides means they maintained the higher quality for longer than a box in the

7 years ago | Likes 83 Dislikes 0

attic.

7 years ago | Likes 26 Dislikes 0

They aren't digital photos.

7 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 3

They are now.

7 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Chemical Film actually had amazing quality. It's why, Kodak I think?, didn't jump on the digital bandwagon originally to their doom.

7 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I feel bad for you if that’s all you took from what are some really interesting and well composed snapshots of a cool era, a rare treat...

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I couldn’t find definitive numbers but a 35mm camera with quality film is equivalent to a 20-80mp digital camera. You lose resolution 1/2

7 years ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 0

2/2 and increase graininess/noise through your method in scanning it into a digital format from the original prints.

7 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 1

Yeah, that's why a lot of older films can be put out in 4k so readily.

7 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

My Dad and I both used Kodachrome for stuff. Color balance is amazing. I have slides on K64 and 200 of PF's "Wall" and "Momentary Lapse"tour

7 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

It makes you think all the world’s a sunny day.

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

So much more though. The grain structure gives a look that is impossible to copy. Ask film makers about it.

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

That was actually a reference to “Kodachrome” by Paul Simon lol

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Slide film is a wonderful thing. My dad shot some in the 70s/80s and when I scanned them, the image quality was an amazing surprise

7 years ago | Likes 23 Dislikes 0

Must have been Kodachrome. Ektachrome fading is a tragedy.

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Definitely. A lot of slide photographs of plants, mosses and lichens from 40 years ago look amazing today.

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I heard you can even get a camera on your mobile or cellular phone now, too

7 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 9

Good luck having your iPhone or Android match the quality of a 35mm film camera.

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Thanks man I appreciate it

7 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

7 years ago | Likes 126 Dislikes 0

That's my aesthetic.

7 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 2

just gonna steal this...

7 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Movie?

7 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 2

Looks like just a time lapse

7 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

It says Toshiba

7 years ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 0

Don't quote me on this but it looks like bladerunner.

7 years ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 1

I had the same inclination.

7 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

"... it looks like bladerunner." -jacksonorme december 19, 2018

7 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

reality

7 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1