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Sam Hall
A Chattanooga area native.

I have a personal appreciation of the city’s remarkable renaissance that has occurred over the past 30 years. Vivid childhood memories of flame-throwing smokestacks and pungent smells of foundries have given way to a revitalized downtown that has embraced its history.

About

This website was first launched in 2014 as 'DeepZoomChattanooga' as it focused on high resolution photos from the past. In 2019 the name was changed to better represent the expanding content.

The focus here is publishing unique images, and uncovering the stories behind those photos.

The Inspiration for this Website

In 2010, the Library of Congress released a collection of 8x10" glass-plate negatives scanned at very high resolution. A series of four plates covered a panoramic view from Cameron Hill, circa 1902.

Each image was over 80 Megapixels in size. I was amazed at the level of details of these 100+ year old photos. However, each file was so large it could cover 30 Full-HD monitors to display at 100% size. Deep Zoom provided a unique way to do this across multiple operating systems and devices.

Each image presented is first cleaned up and clarified as much as possible through work in Photoshop.

Click the red square in the 2nd image to see how small of an area would fill an HD monitor.

See the resulting deep zoom page here.

Photography: a Time Machine

Despite all our current ways we can capture photos, negatives from over 100 years ago can contain far more resolution and detail. A negative (or positive slide) can be scanned to reveal more information than any print or postcard produced from them. Zooming into the images of the past in such detail gives one a sense of being there.

If you could go back in time with a camera and were given only a few minutes to capture some photos, you would probably want to protect and preserve those images, maintain the best quality possible and make backup copies. We are actually given this very opportunity today - every time we take a photo. It becomes a record of the past.

If you have negatives or slides - don't throw them away or store them in the attic.
Download images from your digital cameras & smartphones and back them up.
Save ORIGINAL images, not the copy you attached to a text or social media post, as those are compressed and reduced to digital mush.
Look for your photos and ask your relatives if they have a 'box of photos' (or better yet - negatives). Go through them and record who is in the photos, where and when taken, etc. That information could die with them otherwise.
Digitally scan photos and negatives at as high a resolution as possible. Example: a 35mm negative or slide should be scanned at least 2400dpi and up to 6400dpi if your scanner supports it natively.

Take Uncommon Photos

Let's face it - posed people smiling for the camera, dogs, cats, and flowers will be very un interesting as time goes on.

Take a moment to photograph the larger scene of the street, an event, or anything that may seem normal in this moment in time. In only a few decades it will become more and more interesting.

I purchased my first 'real' camera while a senior in High School. One day I took it to school and took random photos of hallways, the cafeteria, cute girls, etc. My only wish is that I had done that a dozen more times as they are pure gold today.