photography – The Map Room

Wymer’s D.C.

Published on 6 December 2017 by Jonathan Crowe

Wymer’s D.C. is an online collection of the hand-drawn maps, notes and (especially) photographs of John P. Wymer (1904-1995), who in a four-year period between 1948 and 1952 systematically photographed and documented the streets of Washington, D.C., taking thousands of pictures and drawing and describing the city, which he divided into 57 equal sections. The photos are displayed via an interactive map that overlays them over modern-day Google Street View imagery. The site is the brainchild of Jessica Richardson Smith, who as an intern stumbled across the Wymer collection in the holdings of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. as an intern and made the online collection part of her M.A. thesis work, and her husband, software engineer Thomas Smith. More at CityLab. See also Curbed, DCist, Forest Hills Connection and Washingtonian. [WMS]

Sohei Nishino at SFMOMA

Published on 10 January 2017 by Jonathan Crowe

Sohi Nishino, "Diorama Map London," 2010. — Sohi Nishino, “Diorama Map London,” 2010.

An exhibition of Sohei Nishino’s work is taking place right now at SFMOMA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In his Diorama Map series, Nishino assembles patchwork-quilt aerial views of cities from thousands of his photographs; each city is thrown deep into its own uncanny valley. Here’s an Atlas Obscura profile from last November. New Work: Sohei Nishino runs until 26 February. More at SF Weekly. [WMS]

The Newberry Library’s Rand McNally Photos

Published on 8 June 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

The Newberry Library has uploaded some 400 photographs from their Rand McNally and Company collection. The photos, most of which date from the mid-20th century, chronicle various aspects of the company’s mapmaking business. [WMS]