110 PHOTO INTERPRETATION PICTURE, COLWELL 
For, although few if any photo interpreters would realize it, the paragraph immediately 
preceding this one was extracted almost verbatim from my 1952 report. I have done this, 
not because of any pride of authorship in the previous report, but because to do so 
provides perhaps the best measuring stick with which to determine whether we photo 
interpreters are truly progressing or merely patting ourselves on the back each time we 
get together for a World Congress. 
As this paper has indicated, we can point with pride to genuine progress that has 
been made in some of the important aspects of photo interpretation since the founding of 
Commission VII, eight years ago. But, if I have correctly interpreted the Photo Inter- 
pretation Picture in 1960, we should perhaps view with shame the lack of progress in 
certain other aspects. In that event, we must regard my earlier boasts about the great 
“stature of photo interpretation” to have been somewhat premature. 
For maximum progress, we should endeavor to advance along all fronts related to 
the photo interpretation process; yet we often overlook the need for doing so. Perhaps 
this is because we are so often reminded of the analogy that the photo reconnaissance- 
photo interpretation process is much like the links of a chain. Valid as this analogy may 
be in some respects, we should never infer from it that the process can only be strength- 
ened by strengthening the weakest link in the chain. By way of illustrating this impor- 
tant fact, let us assume that at present the weakest link is the photo interpreter him- 
self, the so-called “human factor”. It does not follow that we should therefore abandon 
any further efforts to improve photographic image quality or stereoscopic viewing equip- 
ment, for by providing better imagery we will improve the information-extracting capa- 
bility of all photo interpreters, both the good ones and the mediocre ones. Actually, then, 
we should try to effect improvement in all links in the chain concurrently, even though 
quite realistically it would be well to place greatest emphasis on improving the weakest 
links. 
I have found it a very pleasant assignment to attempt to take stock of where we 
have been, where we now are, and where we are likely to go in the field of photo inter- 
pretation. Let us hope that, four years from now, when the International Society for 
Photogrammetry convenes for its Tenth World Congress, Commission VII can then report 
even more progress for the four-year period which shall just have been completed than 
it is now able to report for the eight year period that has elapsed since Commission VII 
was founded. 
Literature cited. 
American Society of Photogrammetry, Manual of Photogrammetry. George Banta Pub- 
lishing Company, Second Edition, 876 pages, 1952. 
American Society of Photogrammetry, Manual of Photographic Interpretation. George 
Banta Publishing Company, First Edition, 875 pages, 1960. 
Avery, Gene, Helicopter Stereo-Photography of Forest Plots. Photogrammetric En- 
gineering, 24 (4), Pp 617-624, 1958. 
Coleman, Charles G. Resolutions of Commission VII. International Archives of 
Photogrammetry, 12(1), Pp 79-80, 1956. 
Colwell Robert N. The Photo Interpretation Picture in 1955. Photogrammetric 
Engineering, 21(5), Pp 720-724, 1955. 
Colwell Robert N. The Taking of Helicopter Photography for Use in Photo- 
grammetric Research and Training. Photogrammetric Engineering, 22(4), Pp 
613-621, 1956. 
Colwell Robert N. The Future for Photogrammetry and Photo Interpretation. 
Photogrammetrie Engineering, 25(5), Pp 712-736, 1959. 
Craig, Dwin R., LogEtronics. Photogrammetric Engineering 21(4), Pp 556-563, 1955. 
De Lancie, R. H, Steen, W. W., Pippin, R. E. and Shapiro, A., Quantitative 
  
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