Oil Tank Farm at Dusk, Tropical Harbour, 1960s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Oil Tank Farm at Dusk, Tropical Harbour, 1960s — Archive & Atlas

An interpretation of depth — not a measured reconstruction

Depth is precomputed and interpretive — the scene falls back to the flat image where a browser can't render it.

Oil Tank Farm at Dusk, Tropical Harbour, 1960s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1960–1969

AA-2026-4F4DA1

The Archivist

Ask about this image

Archivist

Step into the scene

Off by default. Turning it on lets the image respond to your cursor with a shallow sense of depth, rebuilt from a depth map computed when the image was catalogued. It is an interpretation for looking, not a measured 3D model — and it falls back to the flat image where the browser can't render it.

On the image

Someone on the deck of a departing ship pointed a camera at the shore just as the light went blue, which is the kind of thing 1960s travellers did compulsively, on the theory that a harbour at twilight looked more meaningful than a harbour at noon. What they actually caught was infrastructure: a row of squat storage tanks, a corrugated warehouse, and the thin stacks of what was almost certainly a fuel depot, the unglamorous machinery that kept ships fed with the oil to keep being ships.

A couple of small boats work the calm water near the tanks, doing whatever unglamorous errand small boats do near a refinery, whilst the mountains behind sit there being scenic without being consulted about it. Nobody in 1960s tourist photography ever captioned a picture 'oil terminal,' preferring instead to let the sunset do the talking, and the sunset obliged by turning an industrial supply depot into something that looks, from a hundred yards out, almost romantic.

The truth is that half of what made mid-century sea travel possible sat in tanks exactly like these, in ports exactly like this one, and nobody photographed them for their own sake. This picture only exists because the ship happened to be leaving at the right hour, and the tanks happened to be standing between the passenger and the mountains.

From the community

Identifications, corrections, and discussion from readers — reviewed by a librarian before appearing here.

No notes yet — be the first to add what you know about this image.

Visually related — by likeness

Lake with Distant Mountains, Color Slide, circa 1960s

1955–1975

Great Lakes Shoreline from the Water, 1950s

1950–1959

Passenger Ship at Anchor, Pacific Northwest, circa 1950s

1950–1960

Moored Fleet at Dusk, Pacific Northwest Lake

1960–1978

Fireboat Demonstration on Harbor, American Industrial Waterfront, 1950s

1950–1959

Working Waterfront Viewed from Vessel Rigging, American Port, 1950s

1950–1959

Fishing Fleet at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, 1960s

1960–1969

Wooden Passenger Ferries on a Wide Tropical River, 1960s

1960–1969

Ellis Island Immigration Station, New York Harbor, 1960s

1960–1969 · Ellis Island, New York Harbor

Harbor Freighter and Tug, Industrial Waterfront, 1950s

1950–1959

Industrial Waterfront, Northern Europe, circa 1950s

1945–1960

Port of Montreal Waterfront with Freighters, 1950s

1950–1959