AA-2026-94EB97
On the image
A calm lagoon or sheltered bay stretches toward the horizon in this colour transparency, the water rendered an almost unnatural blue by the film stock and light conditions that must have been the only way to capture tropical scenes reliably in the 1950s or 1960s. A low spit of pale sand and gravel edges the water, backed by dense vegetation that crowds down to the high-tide line, the whole arrangement suggesting a small island or remote coastal settlement where development had not yet learned to flatten everything. A single piece of driftwood or small vessel sits on the beach, the kind of incidental detail that survives in photographs because no one thought to remove it before shooting. This is a place that existed to be documented as itself — untouched, colour-saturated, waiting to demonstrate to people elsewhere that such places were still real and accessible, though already the weight of tourism and the camera's own appetite for evidence suggests this shoreline was being consumed by the act of being recorded.
Visually related — by likeness
Tropical Shoreline at Dawn or Dusk, Mid-20th Century. 1950–1965. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-94EB97. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/tropical-shoreline-at-dawn-or-dusk-mid-20th-century.
@misc{aaAA202694EB97,
title = {Tropical Shoreline at Dawn or Dusk, Mid-20th Century},
year = {1950–1965},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-94EB97},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/tropical-shoreline-at-dawn-or-dusk-mid-20th-century}
}TY - ART TI - Tropical Shoreline at Dawn or Dusk, Mid-20th Century PY - 1950–1965 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-94EB97 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/tropical-shoreline-at-dawn-or-dusk-mid-20th-century ER -
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