The first aerial view of the Santa Cruz coast was captured by George Lawrence in 1906 from a camera carried aloft by a system of kites. This rarely seen panoramic photograph covers the entire city and shoreline from Cowell Beach to nearly Pleasure Point and provides a remarkable early record and unique perspective from a century ago.
Lawrence was born in Illinois right after the Civil War. He first worked in a buggy shop where he invented a way to attach iron rims to wooden wheels.
In 1891, he opened a photography studio in Chicago where he began to channel his creative energies. He developed what was known as flashlight photography, which was used until flashbulbs were invented many years later.
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