Waterskiers, Cypress Gardens, Florida, displayed August 5-26, 1968. Photo by Hank Mayer © Eastman Kodak Co. Courtesy George Eastman House.

From 1950 until 1990, Kodak’s gigantic Colorama photographs dominated the east wall of Grand Central’s Main Concourse. Using what was then innovative technology to print oversize photos that measured 60 feet in length and nearly 20 feet high, these images portrayed an idealized view of American life. They promoted photography as essential for documenting leisure activities as well as capturing special family moments with beautiful, richly-colored photos. The prints will be on display at the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex at Grand Central Terminal until November 1st. They are part of the international traveling exhibition created by George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, which holds the entire Colorama archive. On October 10, following a screening of Debergerac Productions’ documentary, “Colorama: The Stories Behind the Pictures,” former Kodak photographers Steve Kelly and Sam Campanaro will discuss their roles in documenting American “lifestyle.” On October 11, join them on a  lunchtime gallery tour.

—Courtesy Transit Museum

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© Bert Stern

Marilyn Monroe, from “The Last Sitting” (Diamonds), 1962. Contemporary archival pigment print mounted to board, image 20 x 24 inches, signed and dated in grease crayon on verso. Donation of the artist and Staley-Wise Gallery.

This image is one of 300 items that will be part of the George Eastman House Benefit Auction at Sotheby’s on Oct. 4, 2010. Types of photographs include daguerreotypes, salted paper prints, heliogravures, photogravures, carbon, platinum, gelatin silver, dye transfer, and archival pigment prints.

Subjects of the featured photographs include Marilyn Monroe, Frido Kahlo, John F. and Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, Martin Luther King Jr., Coco Chanel, Auguste Rodin, and New York City sites, plus a Kodak Colorama art-directed by Norman Rockwell. For more information click here.