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July 6, 1949. "Johns-Manville Research Laboratory, Finderne, New Jersey. Cafeteria. Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, architects." Continuing the tour begun here. Large-format acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.
... not designed for lingering.
[You don't see the rather thick seat cushions? The seatbacks are padded, also. -tterrace]
The above phrase had to be said anytime someone wanted to leave a table in the center or left sides of this room.
... and ashtrays properly placed. Kudos to the cafeteria crew.
Why do I love G-S so much? Part of it is the instant recognizability. (Although I do also love refreshing the site, seeing the new image, and calling out Jack Delano! or Another of those San Francisco cars!) But there's the clinical recording in B & W of the essence of a place, somewhere in or near NYC, sometimes of the amazing Manhattan skyline (e.g. Gotham Noir: 1933 or Midcentury Manhattan: 1950), at a time within living memory of some of us, and of objects and rooms and layouts which we younger oldsters recognize from our youths. G-S's clean photos also manage to exude a humanity and warmth, most of the time (all of the time?) without any humans present. Some of the images (e.g. 30 Rock: 1933 or Gotham: 1931) are so mythic and luminous that I wonder if they're actually photographs of real things.
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