Sea Cliffs from a Small Plane Window, Hawaii, 1960s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Sea Cliffs from a Small Plane Window, Hawaii, 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.

Sea Cliffs from a Small Plane Window, Hawaii, 1960s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1960–1969

AA-2026-5D0E09

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 leaned toward the window of a small aircraft, camera ready, confident that the scratched plexiglass and the plane's own wing wouldn't get in the way of the shot. The wing got in the way of the shot. It occupies the entire lower left corner, a firm reminder that tourist photography from chartered planes in the 1960s was less about composition and more about whatever the pilot happened to be doing with the flaps at the time.

Beyond the wing, the actual subject: a wall of sea cliffs dropping straight into the Pacific, the kind of coastline that exists specifically to make people in airplanes feel their camera is inadequate. A single small boat sits near the cliff base, dwarfed to a comma mark, presumably belonging to someone who had a much better excuse for being there than sightseeing.

The blue-green cast over the whole scene is the color that vintage transparency film settled into with age, which nobody in the passenger seat was thinking about at the time. They were thinking about getting the shot. They got a wing.

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

Volcanic Crater Island Seen from an Airplane Window, 1960s

1960–1969

Alcatraz Island from the Bay, San Francisco, 1950s

1950–1959

Unidentified Island Seen From a Ship's Deck, 1960s

1960–1969

Desert Mountain Notch, American Southwest, 1950s

1950–1959 · American Southwest

Canyon Floor Hike, Arizona, 2002

2002

Volcanic landscape with infrared or color-shifted film, 1958

1958

Glacial Lake and Alpine Valley, Mountain Wilderness, 1950s

1950–1959 · 1950s

San Francisco Bay Toward the Marin Headlands, 1950s

1950–1959 · San Francisco Bay, California

Caldera Landscape with Cinder Cones, 1950s

1950–1959 · Interior West volcanic field

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas from the Air, Rio de Janeiro, 1960s

1960–1969 · Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, Rio de Janeiro

Flooded Slate Quarry Pit, 1960s

1960–1969

Aerial View of Eroded Canyon Badlands, American Southwest, 1950s

1950–1959