Lake with Distant Mountains, Color Slide, circa 1960s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Lake with Distant Mountains, Color Slide, circa 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.

Lake with Distant Mountains, Color Slide, circa 1960s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1955–1975

AA-2026-9E386A

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 stood at the shore of a large alpine or subalpine lake in the mid-twentieth century and pointed a color-slide camera at the water and the mountains beyond, apparently satisfied that blue on blue, with a thin line of shoreline houses in the far distance, constituted a worthwhile record of the trip. The monochromatic composition—water dominating the frame, mountains reduced to a suggestion, a couple of boats holding their own against the void—suggests either incompetence or genuine faith that being there was enough, that the camera would capture what the eye remembered. The water is so vivid it seems almost printed, a side effect of how early Kodachrome and Ektachrome stock rendered deep alpine lakes when the sun was high and nothing stood in the way. What survives is not a view meant to impress but a casual proof that the photographer was here, that this water existed, and that mountains were indeed far away. It is the visual equivalent of a postcard nobody sent.

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

Alcatraz Island from the Bay, San Francisco, 1950s

1950–1959

Great Lakes Shoreline from the Water, 1950s

1950–1959

Mountain Valley Landscape, Mid-20th Century

1940–1970

Golden Gate Bridge at Sunset from San Francisco Bay Shore, ca. 1960s–70s

1960–1978

Aerial View from Aircraft, 1950s

1950–1959

Mountain Lake with Passenger Liner, circa 1950s

1945–1965

Aerial View of Bay and Waterfront, Mid-20th Century

1948–1965

Pink Lake, 1958

1958

Boreal Lake and Forest Horizon, Circa 1960s

1958–1972

Coastal View with Sailboats, Mid-20th Century

1950–1965

Alpine Lake with Mountain Village, Central Europe, 1950s–1960s

1950–1965

Industrial Waterfront, 1958

1958