Article URL: https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/san-diego-photologs-from-the-1970s/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48647823 Points: 93 # Comments: 21

A collection of beautiful, high-resolution photolog scans reveals a colorful world of pastel-colored cars and whimsical signage. A collection of beautiful, high-resolution photolog scans reveals a colorful world of pastel-colored cars and whimsical signage. The very first post of this newsletter back in 2022 was about Connecticut’s highway photologs from the 1980s. Photologs were essentially an early, film-based version of Google Street View. Almost every state had one of these photolog programs with tricked-out vans logging every mile of road in their state, with some dating back to 1961. The Connecticut footage is a time capsule of the mid 80’s, but the frames are pretty low-res and grainy. While digging through the Internet Archive, I discovered the crispest, most beautiful photologs I've ever seen—captured in San Diego during the 1970s. Collected by the San Diego Transportation and Storm Water Department, these sharp scans right from the 35mm film source let you peek through a window into the sunny streets of San Diego, full of pastel-colored cars, family restaurants like Bonanza, and some colorful people caught unaware. After poring over every frame of the ten videos in this collection, here are my takeaways: The original videos hosted on the Internet Archive look to be unaltered, and not adjusted for brightness. I took the liberty of doing some color correction, and boosting the contrast on these films. After removing the grey veil from this footage, I want to jump into this world—a version of Grand Theft Auto set in the sprawling San Diego of 1973. Having grown up on the East Coast in the '70s and '80s, I find a lot of the businesses and landscapes unfamiliar. But some of the businesses like Jack-in-the-Box, Fotomat, Bonanza, and the 76 gas station ball all take me back. I’m really struck by just how colorful everything was. There are some moments captured on these frames that are just incredible compositions of color, geometry, and type.The footage has a distinctly Wes Anderson vibe—the Futura road labels and the warm, sun-washed palette. You can almost imagine Bill Murray or Jason Schwartzman emerging from a perfectly centered emerald-green Datsun parked beneath the blazing pink signs of "LES GIRLS," advertising "BURLESQUE" and "HYPNO-SEX-ISM."