Sightseer Americanus in its natural habitat

March 27, 2013 11:29 AM

You've probably seen Woman with Scarf at Inspiration Point, Yosemite National Park. But you may not have realized it's just the most famous image of the entire Sightseer Series, created by photographer Roger Minick over more than 30 years.
posted by scody (27 comments total)

Man, I wish I could link to them directly. There's an amazing family in Yellowstone from 1980 that looks like an ad for jeans.
posted by mathowie at 11:35 AM on March 27, 2013

This one? (I love it, too!)
posted by scody at 11:37 AM on March 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

That's the one!
posted by mathowie at 11:40 AM on March 27, 2013

These feel very Diane Arbus to me.
posted by kinnakeet at 11:44 AM on March 27, 2013

The kid on the right's an investment banker now.
posted by resurrexit at 11:45 AM on March 27, 2013

Well, that's one possible solution to the problem of there always being someone in the way of your shot. Up till now I've just been scowling. Doesn't seem to help.
posted by echo target at 11:45 AM on March 27, 2013

Also, these are great. But like all old pictures, they reminded me never, ever to try to look cool ever again. Dress for the century!
posted by resurrexit at 11:45 AM on March 27, 2013 [4 favorites]

I'm not saying the guy on the left in this one is Kurt Vonnegut, but I certainly prefer to believe it is.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:47 AM on March 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

OK, I really have to bump up the saturation of my vacation photos from now on.
posted by GuyZero at 11:48 AM on March 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

The Card Cheat, yep, unknown to many, he and Eddie Van Halen were not only friends but an amateur mountaineering team.
posted by resurrexit at 11:49 AM on March 27, 2013 [5 favorites]

GuyZero, you'll want to put a big flash on top of your camera too.
posted by echo target at 11:54 AM on March 27, 2013

I'm not saying the guy on the left in this one is Kurt Vonnegut, but I certainly prefer to believe it is.

I like to believe that it's a couple of the guys from Dazed & Confused on a skiing trip. "All right all right all right..."
posted by scody at 11:55 AM on March 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

Okay, you know how when architects do the design proposals for new buildings or public spaces, and they do a sort of "artist's rendering" of how the space will look and they use a crapton of random stock photo images of people cut-and-pasted into the rendering so it looks all lively and popular?

This looks exactly like one of those kinds of pictures.

...Also, I wanna know this guy's story. And the kid on the far right in this picture reminds me of my younger brother on a lot of family vacations when we were in high school and he just wanted to be at home flirting with his girlfriends.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:57 AM on March 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

Society has made a lot of progress since 1980, sure, but one thing we've lost is the ability to nonchalantly walk around barechested in terry-cloth short shorts and a trucker cap, enjoying the warmth of a deep summer tan, and feeling the breeze as God intended.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:57 AM on March 27, 2013 [12 favorites]

I can't get that line from "Pink Houses" out of my head.

"Ain't that America/ Something to see, baby"
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:04 PM on March 27, 2013

1980 was a hell of a lot dorkier than I remembered.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 12:06 PM on March 27, 2013

Society has made a lot of progress since 1980, sure, but one thing we've lost is the ability to nonchalantly walk around barechested in terry-cloth short shorts and a trucker cap, enjoying the warmth of a deep summer tan, and feeling the breeze as God intended.

We still have that, with the added benefit a few years down the line of feeling the skin cancer as Dow intended.
posted by FatherDagon at 12:14 PM on March 27, 2013

Sorry, but 1980 was every bit as dorky as I remember. And I'm OK with that.

These are awesome, by the way - I really enjoyed looking at them.
posted by mosk at 1:09 PM on March 27, 2013

Oh, I like this one, too. They all look like variations on my Uncles Bud (yes, plural).
posted by scody at 1:26 PM on March 27, 2013

My 20-something brain screamed what fresh cattle-truck hell is this? And then my 60-something bones kicked me in the head and it began to look appealing.
posted by maggieb at 1:34 PM on March 27, 2013

Woah. Cool. I think that this is an updated version of the cattle-sleeper-bus.
posted by GuyZero at 1:36 PM on March 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is pretty awesome. I kinda wonder what he was shooting these on — square format, likely Kodak (reds/oranges). I wonder if they were chromes.

Anyway, great find.
posted by klangklangston at 1:51 PM on March 27, 2013

You've probably seen Woman with Scarf at Inspiration Point, Yosemite National Park.

I hadn't, but I'm very glad that I have now. Thanks, scody.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:43 PM on March 27, 2013

I wonder if they were chromes.

I was curious about that too. Based on the mention of 400 ISO in his field notes, the fact that it came out in 400 roughly when the project was started, and the serious grain in the sky here, I would put money on Ektachrome 400. Wild conjecture, yes, but I just can't see 400 print film looking that grainy in medium format.
posted by Lorin at 3:12 PM on March 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

Also, never seen these before so thanks for posting! Talk about ahead of his time with the fill-flash look.
posted by Lorin at 3:19 PM on March 27, 2013

The guy on the left in the "jeans commercial" photo is basically John Hawkes on vacay.
posted by marylynn at 3:36 PM on March 27, 2013

Wow, I love this this one. It's so iconic, it's like he discovered the primal family-on-vacation.
posted by mosk at 3:41 PM on March 27, 2013