Rephotography

I have been looking online at examples of rephotography to try and gain some ideas and find out what it's about. It seems like a very popular method of photography and there are many examples of different techniques used! I quite like the work of Mark Klett who adapts a photojoiner style with rephotography to create very interesting panoramas spanning several decades!

"Over the past three and a half decades, Mark Klett has pioneered and refined the art ofrephotography. In 1977, Klett, with Ellen Manchester and JoAnn Verburg, began the Rephotographic Survey Project, locating the vantage points of iconic 19th-century photographs of the American West and meticulously reframing these views from 100 years prior. The new photographs were published alongside the originals in Second View (1984). "

I feel these images work really well because they are so detailed. There's a lot to look at in them and they are generally beautiful landscapes. The inclusion of older images is a nice touch as we can see how a natural landscape developed and changes over time. I'm not sure this is the technique for me as I'm not sure it's practical enough having only a few archive images for my area at my disposal. There are plenty of other examples of rephotography online and so I'll keep researching until I find something I think is fitting for this project.

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2480888/Not-changed-Photographer-fuses-historic-scenes-Salford-modern-day-snaps--surprised-city-looks-same.html

"Not much has changed! Photographer fuses historic scenes of Salford with modern day snaps... and was surprised to find the city looks much the same. Postal worker Neil Pearson, 46, blended archive images with his own to create an intriguing mix of past and present

An Arriva bus pulling out on to Trafford Road bridge in Manchester is met by the unusual spectacle of a team of horses dragging carriages of freight.
Meanwhile a modern 4x4 is parked just around the corner from a classic Ford Model T - in trademark black. 

These evocative images, showing a bizarre clash of past and present, demonstrate beautifully the way our cities have changed with the passage of time - and the ways they haven't."

I have recently came across this article from 2013 on the daily mail online. It's a very similar project to mine and is very relevant research!

A man has taken old photographs from around salford and combined them with elements from today and created a mash up of times. In the above photographs he combines elements from old salford with new salford but the only things that have changed are the cars in some!

In each photograph the streets are packed with people and yet in the newer ones they seem much quieter. Is this a sign of the times or just a coincidence?

I really like the images but I can't help that think the poor quality of them is letting them down massively. Obviously he is limited to the quality of the archive images but there may be ways around this such as scanning original negatives etc.

I will certainly take some inspiration from these images as the techniques are very much the same as I will be using. Unlike some other rephotography projects online I like the way he has used the full image and then masked out certain elements. I have found a lot of people placing the full image within a square of a new image and this style just does not appeal to me. I think blending the two images together is certainly the technique I am going to use for my final images!