The Don Englebreston Collection

Point-of-View Photograph from a Canyon Rim, Almost Certainly Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii, circa Late 1960s

Point-of-View Photograph from a Canyon Rim, Almost Certainly Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii, circa Late 1960s

A traveler's point-of-view snapshot taken from the unprotected rim of a deep volcanic canyon, with the photographer's white canvas sneakers framing the drop below. The banded red and ochre soils, dark basalt ledges and eroded pyramidal spurs identify the site as Waimea Canyon on Kauai, Hawaii, long known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. The same footwear appears on a man photographed at a Hawaiian resort elsewhere in this sequence, indicating a single traveler and a single trip. Although filed with Vietnam-era aviation material, the frame is a civilian vacation photograph; Hawaii was the principal leave and transit stop for American personnel travelling to and from Southeast Asia in this period. No text or insignia is visible. Project: 219827