GoKawiilA 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.
One frame from the San Diego 35mm photolog footage. The numbers at the bottom indicate the date, mileage, and direction.
After poring over every frame of the ten videos in this collection, here are my takeaways:
🥩 People ate a lot of steak at themed restaurants
👯♀️ There were tons of strip clubs featuring “Go-go girls”
🚗 The range of car colors was amazing, with tons of pastels, bright reds, and a wild variety of greens
🤠 Signs for businesses were WAY more creative, and well-designed with great typography. And many were spinning.
🦩 Our world has lost its sense of whimsy
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