APRIL 1957 – Three tourists stand on the empty Avenida Jaime I el Conquistador in San Juan, Spain on a sunny day. Scan © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
This morning I wrote about the challenges of finding out where a historical photo was taken. Here’s the image that helped me identify the location in San Juan d’Alacant in Spain.
The three tourists clearly stand on the beach promenade looking north, and the photographer looks towards South, the beach is to the left. Please note the villa with the small tower and the three windows in that tower. According to aerial photography from Google Maps, this is Avenida Jaime I el Conquistador,110. Looking at the more recent Street View imagery from Google, the villa seems to have been replaced by a modern building just recently.
Six major changes have apparently taken place over the past 64 years:
- The train tracks have been doubled and moved to the other side of the Avenida.
- The house with the tower has been extended towards the back (in the image on the right)
- The lot next to the house with the tower has been occupied with a large appartment building.
- The palm trees have grown significantly.
- The Avenida has been tarred.
- The house with the tower has been recently replaced with a modern appartment building.
I leave it to you to determine whether today’s version is better, or the version from 1957.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | April 1957 |
| Location | San Juan d’Alacant, Spain |
| Image Source | 7 x 10 cm Print from Original Negative Film |
| Digital Image Source | EPSON Perfection 4870 Photo |
| Digital Image Source Format | TIFF, 48 bits/pixel, AdobeRGB |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 4449 x 3103 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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