Showing posts with label rephotography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rephotography. Show all posts

Bricks of the Past - Rephotography at the Spokesman-Review

Riverside Avenue in 1909 and Today--where did all the people go?
Our local newspaper has been dipping into its archives for content more and more lately. It is a welcome trend for local historians. The latest offering is Bricks of the Past - A Then & Now gallery. Readers of this blog now what a sucker I am for rephotography projects, and this one is very nicely presented, with a slider bar at the bottom of each image to shift between past and present.

Does anyone know what software they used to do this?

Then and Now: at the Spokesman-Review

I like this as a variation on the before-and-after rephotography theme--a slide show drawn from the archives of the Spokesman Review and modern photos of the same scene:


The video page at the Spokesman has additional historic videos, including one featuring historic neighborhoods.

Arizona Stories and a Rephotography Roundup

Arizona Stories: For his landmark book, "Arizona Then and Now," photographer Allen Dutton traveled across the state to recapture archival images from their exact original location. Watch as early century images transform into contemporary photography.

Arizona Stories is a fun "before and after" photography site, where modern photographers try to take a photograph at exactly the same spot as a historic photo. Sometimes called rephotography, the technique is fun and lends itself naturally to presentations on the web. Examples include Third View - A Rephotographic Survey of the American West; Urban Life through Two Lenses — a flash-heavy exhibit of Quebec rephotography, and Springfield Rewind - featuring rephotographs of Springfield, Illinois. The last site presents the before and after photographs in my favorite format: one sees the historic photograph, but rolling the mouse over it causes it to "flip" to the modern scene. It is a simple trick that packs a punch. I have played around with rephotography myself here in Carthage, Missouri (examples 1, 2, 3). There are also many books featuring rephotographs.

Rephotography is easy and fun, especially with the large and increasing number of historic photos online. I think it would make a great project for school students! Give them some copies of historic photographs of their own community and send them out to rephotograph the scenes. The before and after pictures could go on the web, or have an art show where students stand next to large prints of their photographs while parents and community members visit. If any Spokane area teachers are interested, drop me and email and let's see what we can do together.