Photographer Bob Gibson creates Florida Landscape photos with a unique nostalgic twist. Each image is shot with a hand-built diorama in the foreground featuring includes 1960’s era cars and highway billboards. He researches and travels the backroads of Florida to bring to life colorful memories of the pre-Disney and pre-Interstate Florida family vacation. He recreates the wonder of looking out the back of a station wagon to view vast natural waterscapes.
The highway billboards of the decade lure family vacationers to witness animal shows with monster-sized creatures and the headlines shout out in large type to stop and purchase citrus perfume, boiled peanuts, and stuffed alligator heads.
“Finding Florida’ began for me as a nostalgic time travel project and became a history lesson.
I set up at sunrise roadside at a central Florida produce farm. It was a cool winter morning with patches of fog over rows of lettuce and I sprayed fog from a can of aerosol over the “country road” diorama I had built to help combine foreground and background. The “billboard” common in the 60’s on Hwy 41 between Ft.Meyers and Tampa touts “Florida Land–with 10 attractions for one price.” The family-run holiday spot near Sarasota included themed rides, animal show, gifts and a botanical park–all the popular formulae for roadside tourism.
All of Bob Gibson’s photos are created entirely “in-camera”. He sets up a tripod, bolts his hand-built diorama onto the top a step ladder then places the camera’s lens extremely close to the “vintage cars” and hits the shutter.
The closeness of the lens to subject does the work to seamlessly weave together foreground and background. This technique, called forced perspective, is how early cinematographers made Godzilla and King Kong seem larger than life.
I wondered, “How much of Old Florida still exists?”
“I had fun motoring across the peninsula to chase old Florida fruit stands, family run attractions, historic downtowns and untamed wilderness. But I also learned sad truths about a state slow to implement civil rights and eager for upscale development at the cost of natural preservation. I tried to capture the reality of the times, good and bad, and believe I have just scratched the surface of a larger journey.”
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Near the town of Christmas, Florida, one can view the vast marsh lands that feed the St. John’s River. The roadside stops still include Airboat Tours, Alligator Farms, Biker Bars and a park that includes restored Florida Cracker Homes. Highway 46 between Mims and Sanford is one of my favorite “Old Florida” drives. Yeehaw Junction began as small dot on the map surrounded by hundreds of miles of marsh and citrus groves. Roadside stands sold fresh Indian River citrus, orange blossom perfume, boiled peanuts, fireworks and stuffed Alligators. It grew to include a small town with a hotel before a recent hurricane changed it back to being a small dot on the map. Palm Beach stole the headlines for celebrity sightings, but the intentionally quiet Town of Jupiter Island was and still is America’s wealthiest zip code. Port Salerno was a hard-working fishing village surrounding the Manatee Pocket. Sport fishing yachts have replaced the net hauling boats that caught schools of Mackerel. Some great “Old Florida” homes and seafood diners still exist, including this awesome sixties roadside Ice Cream stop. Winter Garden was then the home of the Cypress Gardens waterski attraction. Today Legoland has replaced the “human pyramid” waterskiing shows and the historic downtown aims to become a “foodie destination with craft beer breweries” Jupiter Inlet is a wonderful time travel location. You can climb a Lighthouse built during the civil war, visit a pioneer home or drive right up to an ocean inlet to fish or watch boats navigate the waves. .
