[pdx] A Photo Fit for a Calendar

702 One of the unexpected bonuses of Amanda Fritz's new blog is that Steve Fritz is a hell of a photographer.

Go off to this post right now. Gorgeous, gorgeous sunrise snap of Portland; like the post title says, fit for a calendar (we thought about hotlinking, but decided against it; from our POV, it's kinda rude. So, go look, then come back).

That photo jogged our memories. One of our favorite things in the world is a collection of Portland maps going back to about 1927. Several gas station maps in this batch, and Steve's creative process on this photo seems to be channelling the artist of the cover illo of the Chevron/Gousha 1965 Portland map, which can be seen right of this very paragraph (click to enbiggen).

But you be the judge. Below find a comp we assembled using relevant cropped sections of each bit of art. The chief difference is that Steve's photo was taken at sunrise whilst the painting is purported to be of Portland 1965 at sunset. Other than that, of course, is the obvious difference in urban artifice and architecture; but my verbiage veers most verbose, so on to the photo (the painting is on the left, Steve's photo is on the right, naturlich):


Miles, John, you have competition I do believe.

(Parenthetically, checking in at Stumptown Confidential linked me to this requiem for the once-great, now-lamented main street of Thomason USA, McLoughlin Boulevard–recently published in the Oregonian's Metro South supplement)

Tags: Portland, Portland Photos, Portland History, Petroliana, Steve Fritz