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“A soft landscape” #OpenParksNetwork #DigitalArchiveScan from the #ClemsonUniversityArchives #Photography

#Stunday 🦋 #Landscapes #BlueskyPhotography
#Skyart #BlueskyArt #Art #NPS #StateParks #Nature
#GreatSmokyMountainsNationalPark #ShenandoahNationalPark
#TheParkwaysProjects by #TomOgburn
This soft and gently silvered image is scanned at around 3000dpi from an original glass plate negative of the CCC era photography in the formation years of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is a classically framed scenic; a tree trunk rising from the lower left corner, then angling into the left frame. The leaves of another species of tree frame the right side of the image. Before us, in the open area is a foreground of foliage below the viewer's eyes in the medium shadow cast by the trees. Beyond that is a ridge, and then, if the further distance a very large mountain ridge of the beloved Blueridge Appalachian chain. #OPN is what we call this treasure trove of over 1.3 million extremely high resolution scans; usual live image areas averaging 5x7 to 11x15 inches, some much larger than that still—with some scans at 6000dpi, which is phenomenally impressive! The National Parks Service has collaborated with Clemson University's Archival Librarians to tackle the entire National Parks archive of all known photo prints and negatives (which for years—decades—have lain in an invisible status just solely due to the lack of technology to release these images back into our world. 95% of the Clemson OPN scans are in the public domain or part of their open source network. When I learned of the availability of these treasured images, I knew then I would add them to the stories and narrative I'm creating for "The Parkways Projects," which are now in their fifth year of process and preparation as newly restored images which will provide actual photographs for illustrations illuminating The Parkways Projects articles, stories, poems, sidebar information and other topics along the way. I'm referencing the history of the Parkways formation alongside the work to bring the Great Smoky Mountains and the Shenandoah National Parks into being. The idea to build the Parkways emerged from that great initial dream of building our National Parks using the Public Works Projects.
February 16, 2025 at 10:05 PM