Rationale

Rationale – Rephotography

When we were first introduced to the project I didn’t have much of an idea of what re photography was. We were shown some examples and then once I began researching online I found out it was a very popular technique especially over the last 2 to 3 years. Rephotography as a whole can be anything, it’s a very open area.

The first way for me to get some ideas was to visit the image archive at the salford art gallery and start finding images in my area. I wasn’t really aware of my area in Salford so this was a great chance to start learning about it. After visiting the archive I discovered my area was mostly residential and featured some prominent streets such as Eccles New Road and Bury New Road. I chose to focus mainly on these areas as I thought they would be the most interesting.

After giving a presentation as a group I decided that I wanted to look at change. Rephotography often features elements of change however I wanted to try and find images in the archive that looked similar to the streets today. Salford as an area has changed greatly over the years, some areas have had huge investments and some have suffered at the hand of recession and change in lifestyle.

The areas I’ve focused on have not changed all that much at least on the outside. The purpose of the buildings may have changed, the look or signage may have changed but generally the foundations and architecture have remained very similar over a 40-year period. I want to include elements from archive images and blend them together with photographs taken today. I hope to show the changes be they small or large. I always aim to try and include more information than the original archive images display. They are generally framed quite tight and don’t always offer much insight into the area. I am hoping that with a wide angle lens I can combine the archive images and my own photography to give the viewers a wider view and help them travel through several decades in a single photograph.

For my final gallery piece I decided to focus on change. Rephotography often demonstrates how much things have changed over a period of time by showing differences between an original photograph and a current one. The piece I have created demonstrates the change in photography in 30 years while showing that the building has not changed greatly. The building is situated on Bury New Road and has remained in the same condition for around 30 years. The purpose of the building may have changed, the inside may have changed but the outside remains relatively the same. The inclusion of colour again pays homage to the advances in digital photography and gives further detail that the original archive image did not include.