New Pontiac, 1957
Archival pigment print
28 × 38 in
Edition of 20
March 24, 2025
This photograph greets us as a study in contrast. The coral-colored Pontiac Star Chief that is parked in the dirt driveway looks like it just rolled off the factory floor, its fresh coat of automotive paint serving to further accentuate the disrepair of the various coats of peeling paint in the weather-beaten buildings around it.
Vancouver-based photographer Fred Herzog shot using color Kodachrome slide film, at a time when it was taken for granted that serious street photographers worked in black and white. Kodachrome film was the gold standard for midcentury color photographers not just for its vibrancy, but also for its accuracy of color reproduction. Here it captures every nuanced shade of color in the peeling paint on the weathered clapboard houses. The resulting picture is extraordinary in its subtle range of color and textural variation.
Due to its extremely complex processing requirements, Kodachrome was initially printed only by the manufacturer. As a consequence, Herzog presented his photographs as projected slides, when he shared them publicly. Decadees later, advances in digital scanning and printing allowed him to revisit his past work and create prints like this one. When exhibited, these pictures were a revelation within the photography co
