APRIL 1957 – The working harbor of Santa Pola in Spain on a sunny day. Scan © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
Here’s an interesting photo from the family archives. It most likely shows the working harbor of Santa Pola in Spain in April 1957. There are only very few historic images available on the Internet, so it is difficult to confirm whether this is really Santa Pola, or some other harbour in the Alicante region.
It’s one of the rare color shots from the archive. There is a stamp on the back warning to not expose the print to sunlight for a longer period of time – and I bet this has not happened – but the colors have faded away over the decades anyway. What’s more, the print probably has never been sharp at all.
And here’s how that print looks today, unedited:
Yet, despite its technical shotcomings, I like the image. The fleet of fishing vessels all lined up at the harbour is a historical view of Spain that has gone forever. While there still are some fishing boats today, the majority of boats have vanished. I can’t blame the people of Santa Pola, though, because commercial fishing has always been hard and risky work.
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | April 1957 |
| Location | Santa Pola, Spain |
| Image Source | 10.3 x 7.4 cm color print |
| Digital Image Source | EPSON Perfection 4870 Photo |
| Digital Image Source Format | TIFF, 48 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 4600 x 3212 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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