time travel

[Jack_5762]

The recent post about the current re photographic project was interesting. The Klett led project of years ago showed that the land remains largely the same when man does not intervene. I took a LF class to Big Bend National park in Texas and we found a landscape that was harsh and beautiful. It is not uncommon for the temp to hit 120 five months of the year. We photographed a great deal across the Rio Grande in Boquillas Mexico. A wonderful discovery later on was that AA had made the same photographs in 1942. The cliffs and rocks, of course had not changed but ,surprisingly, the trees and cactus were also virtually the same.

I've long been tempted by the idea of searching out the structures that are in some of the most well known photographs. Are they still there? How has the land/cityscape changed around these areas? What does Hernandez look like today? Somebody should be able to post a contemporary photo. Can one still find the building in Strand's Wall Street? How about the vista seen by Stieglitz and others when photographing from rooftops. I recently found( I think) Max Yavnos fire escape Steps off Canal Street. I wasn't looking for it, it just appeared. Could we still see the street where Orkin photographed Youn g American Student? I bet we could even go back and find some of the structures photographed by Fenton 160 years ago. Then there is Atget I would be the first to sign on to a tour that travelled around Paris and Versailles and see the places that he photographed. Has anyone seen these places and structures? On my last trip to Paris I was too distracted by the sights and sounds and bakeries( it seems like every block has at least two) to think about Atget. Where would you go to see if the scene and structures are the same as when photographed years and decades ago?

[Bruce Barlow]

Hernandez is surrounded by mobile homes. I was there last summer with the family, and we went to Mesa Verde from Santa Fe, which takes you through Hernandez.

Steve Simmons told me we'd never find where Ansel made the picture. I took that as a challenge. I told my 13-year-old son we were going past the place, and he said, "Are we looking for the graveyard?" He probably hadn't seen the picture in 4 years, and still remembered. Incredible.

Well, we found the graveyard, surrounded by mobile homes. It ain't like it used to be, but we were proud to have found it and happy to have seen it, no matter the condition.

I want to follow a US Highway (not an interstate, but one of the old roads) like US 20 or US 4 across country and photograph along the way. I think that would be a worthy project. I know folks have done books about US 1 in the east, and I have a book with wonderful photographs made along Route 66. Nevertheless, I think there's room for more. I may be about $2 a gallon too late, though. We'll see.

[Brian Ellis]

I went to Hernandez on a workshop with Steve Simmons. When he says you won't find where Ansel made the picture I believe he means that the road from which Ansel Adams made the photograph isn't the road that's being used today. The remnants of the old road are nearby IIRC and aren't difficult to find (or weren't ten years ago) but most people don't realize they need to find the old road if they want to get to the spot from where Adams made the photograph.

[Bill_1856]

Nice thread, Jack.

[Alec Jones]

Yes, Jack, it is an interesting subject. But, you left out one thing.

For the more recent photographers [my interest is W. Evans], you may even run into people who were THERE when the original photograph was made. I've found folks at 2 sites who remembered Walker being there taking his photographs. Now THAT is really exciting.

Keeping in mind the passage of time, I don't expect to find many more, but it adds another aspect to the search. You'd be amazed at how many of the sites are there, but what changes have occurred. I can spend hours comparing the old and new photographs to see what has happened. It's often hard to believe it is the same place, but a prominent fixture at the spot confirms the location.

Brian is right - the "tripod holes" may not be there because of subsequent construction, etc. It can be a challenge.

[paulr]

The building in Strand's Wall Street is the JP Morgan Bank, and it's still there, looking just the same. I stumbled onto it my first year in New York and a had real creepy sense of deja vu. The main difference is that the bankers travelling in herds in front of it aren't wearing hats anymore.

Almost any city vista by Stieglitz is going to be radically different. So many buildings come down as new ones go up in the city. This was one of the central ideas in Dorothea Lang's multi-year portrait of new york ... the perpetuity of change. 293 5th Avenue, the home of Stieglitz's "little gallery," is sadly long gone.

But I have a friend (a photographer) who lives in Lake George New York, who says the Stieglitz house is still there. Probably the summer house of some annoying NYC broker.

[Mark Sawyer]

For that matter, I wonder whether the Westons still grow green peppers in the garden where Edward grew his. Talk about an heirloom crop...

[chris_4622]

I'd like to photograph the stairs used in a Three Stooges short, when they were the ice men.

[Conrad Hoffman]

A few years ago the local historical society held a photo contest that was loads of fun. They gave each entrant an old postcard or photograph from the local area. The assignment was to locate the scene and duplicate the photo to the best of ones abilities. I ended up on the roof of a supermarket, taking a shot down main street, since the original photo was taken from the second story of a house no longer in existence. I remember searching out a few features that were still around- chimneys, building edges, and the landscape in the background, so I could align my position as best possible. At the end they had a big get-together where all the originals were displayed next to the modern images. Interesting, educational, and, as I said, loads of fun!

[Randy Becker]

I recall a college professor of mine showed a series of images where a photographer had done the very same thing with a wide assortment of images. The one that still sticks in my memory was of a home beside the ruts of wagon wheels. The current interstate highway was in the same position of the wagon wheel tracks. I seem to recall the house had been removed but other landmarks were still there. It was kind of spooky to see.

Randy

[austin granger]

I live near Bodega Bay, California, where AA made a fairly well known photograph of a church called St. Teresa's. I believe it was in the early-mid forties. Anyway, the church is still there and looks exactly the same, except the dirt road leading up to it is now paved.

[Dave Moeller]

There is a series of book called "[City Name] Then and Now"...a similar idea to the one stated above. Photographs taken anywhere from 50-100+ years ago, and then a photo shot from about the same place looking in the same direction much more recently. They're an interesting way to learn the history of a city. (I live in Pittsburgh and picked up the book on my home town. Even though I've studied Pittsburgh history extensively, this book contributed a lot to my knowledge of the Pittsburgh of old.)

I also picked up the book for Paris. Fascinating stuff.

Be well.
Dave

[Mark_3899]

Currently at the Museum of the City of New York is the following exhibition.



New York Changing: Douglas Levere Revisits Berenice Abbott's New York

Jul 26 through Nov 13

New York Changing: Douglas Levere Revisits Berenice Abbott’s New York presents 50 pairs of photographs by contemporary photographer Douglas Levere and world-renown photographer Berenice Abbott. Abbott’s iconic photographs, drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection, were taken in the 1930s and first published in her landmark book, Changing New York (1939). More than six decades later, Levere used the same camera Abbott had used and returned to the same locations at the same time of day and the same time of year. Indeed, he took on the role of detective as he successfully sought to understand and replicate every aspect of Abbott’s process. When seen side by side, these two remarkable bodies of work reveal much about the city and the nature of urban transformation. Perhaps more than anything else, these carefully crafted images powerfully suggest that in New York, the only constant is change.

[David A. Goldfarb]

When I visited Wells Cathedral, of the famous Frederick Evans "Sea of Steps," the most notable change was a sign warning visitors of the very worn steps.

[Brian Ellis]

"For the more recent photographers [my interest is W. Evans], you may even run into people who were THERE when the original photograph was made"

Somebody, I don't remember who, located the children of the family with whom Evans and Agee stayed, and that Evans photographed, for their book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" and made a documentary film that included interviews with the children who of course by then were adults. It was very interesting. As I recall, the children all had moved up into the middle class and were rather ashamed or resentful of being portrayed as they were in the book. They also said that neither Agee nor Evans ever gave their family a copy of the book.

[Jack_5762]

Brian

Your right. How great would be to talk with people who were actually there. What a project that would. Heads up to any Ph.d candidates out there. Someone, of course I don't remember the name, actually went to Arkansas and found a lot of people who were the subjects of Mike Disfarmers portraits. Also, if memory serves, People who knew Bellocq in Storeyville were interviewd in the book about same.

[Mark Sampson]

Let's see...

the book about Hale County, Alabama, Walker Evans and James Agee is called "And Their Children After Them". Not specifically about the photos, but recommended just the same. Two fine rephotographic books are "Cityscapes of Boston" by Peter Vandewarker (who has been photographing the Big Dig since that book was published) and "Deja Vu" by my friend Willie Osterman, about Bologna,Italy. And hasn't Mark Klett gone back and looked at thirty years of changes since the Rephotographic survey of the '70s? I think this whole genre started with someone who went back and re-photographed at Civil War photo sites, starting in the late '60s- I can't remember his name right now.