San Francisco in ruins, 1906, photographed from 2000 ft. The camera was elevated by a train of kites
Over the years George Lawrence developed kite systems to carry bigger and bigger cameras. In order to keep the camera perfectly steady at 2000 feet he used a heavy plumb bob to form an “aerial tripod” which prevented horizontal spinning. To operate the camera shutter, an electric current ran through a silk sheathed filament in the kites main line. His cameras were a swing lens design where the film sits on semi circular rails, the lens swings in an arc and after exposure is locked in place. At the same time a tiny paper parachute is released which signaled the end of exposure.
Lawrence’s best-known photograph is a panoramic view of San Francisco in Ruins taken in May 1906 a few weeks after a devastating earthquake and fire had destroyed much of the city. After arriving in San Francisco with five assistants, he immediately began to assemble his equipment. After hours of mounting difficulty, his heavy kite remained stalled at about 100 feet elevation and it was late afternoon before he could coax the camera up to the 2000 feet desired for the photo. By this time the sunlight had shifted directly into the camera’s lens. He was also having great difficulty getting the electric triggering current through the rain soaked cord. Finally at 5 pm the parachute signal appeared. Although he thought his efforts were in vain he processed the negative that night. The result was a superb negative and through world wide sales he made more than $15000 (a large sum at the time) and numerous awards. Critics agreed that shooting into the sun was the main factor in changing an extraordinary technical achievement into a dramatic masterpiece.
Recent controversy has surrounded Lawrence’s camera rig, which he called a “captive airship.” Some have interpreted this to mean he used a balloon (Beauffort Dusariez 1995). However, strong historical documentation exists for kites as the lifting means (Baker 1997). Lawrence utilized a train with up to 17 Conyne kites connected by piano-wire cable. The panoramic swing lens camera took photographs with a field of view around 130° and weighed 49 pounds. It was suspended in a special tripod device with booms 15 feet long, which weighed 15 pounds–total weight of camera and tripod = 64 pounds. Lawrence used this setup in many locations, and he returned to San Francisco in 1908 to photograph reconstruction of the city.
Found a Archival copy (no compression) version of the famous picture as a tif via the Library of Congress.
Tags: Bay Area, Earthquake, History, Interesting, Photographs, Photography
