FWP - research - the art of re-photography - part 1

As I mentioned in the previous post, I needed to find some practitioners who have done re-photography to see what the genre was like. To me the whole idea was a challenge since there is no one in Bulgaria who has done such a project. I looked globally (and googled 're-photography') to see who are some of the most famous in the field were. After all, if I am to learn, let it be by the best.

One of the first projects that I encountered was Douglas Levere's New York Changing[1] which portrayed the way New York (Manhattan in particular) has changed over the 20th century. The author started in the 1990s and used absolutely the same perspective as the one of the previous images. The images are displayed side by side, showing the differences (or lack of them, in some cases). At first, that seemed like a good approach to me. I was fascinated by the way Levere used the same perspective to show the stark changes. However, as I later discovered, that approach (see fig.1 below) turned out to be one of the most conventional ones and I was aiming for something more ‘artsy’, interesting and attracting attention. To conform with my Eastern European side, I needed something that appealed to me and despite the attention to angle and perspective Levere showed, I disliked the idea to show both images - the vintage and the modern - in monochrome. I have previously written about this but guess I need to repeat it here again - I am a fan of colour photography. Not that monochrome is a bad thing but rarely a picture looks better with the colours taken away. 

As in the image below, the emphasis is on forms, that is good, but I think the image lost from being converted to black and white. Lost the vigour of modernity, the colour of the current world. If I look at the two images, the one that looks better to me is the original image from 1936, because of the variety of forms of the skyscrapers and the interesting  line they form for the viewer. The eye is made to wonder to and from whereas in the second, re-photographer picture, the eye is  blocked by that tall building in the foreground. The thing being black and white automatically makes it less interesting to me compared to the previous one. 

Fig.1 Douglas Levere - From Pier 11, East River, between Old Slip and Wall Street. 1936/1998.

Even though I admired Levere for the meticulous angling and the whole project, something was missing in there for me as I wanted to have photographs that look no less 'beautiful' than their originals. I needed colour and life and most importantly - I needed doable angles. The image above showed to me that it is not enough to have a nice old picture with a stunning landscape if the same place looks like the pic on the right.

So I kept on searching. I thought that there must be someone who did do re-photography and managed to create stunning pieces. So far the ones Levere did were interesting but they didn't make me think 'wow, I want to do something like him'.

I came across Andrzej Maciejewski’s project After Notman while searching for other practitioners. He selected iconic locations in Canada, photographed by William Notman in the 19th century and aimed to re-photograph them reproducing the same light, colours and shades. The project turned out to be a huge success since it was awarded by a local cultural magazine[2].Maciejewski’s approach was also traditional – the images are displayed side by side and the processing is done in such a way that the two images visually resemble each other, as if they had been taken using the same method (see screen grab below). What I liked most and intend to use in my project, however, is the idea to select iconic locations and re-photograph them.

Since the archives are full of images of Sofia that show random places that have changed drastically, it would not make much sense. Maciejewski managed to show not only how the images changed BUT also to make both images look appealing. You see the city changing before you but unlike the images of Levere, here you admire both images. 

Fig.2 (left) William Notman & Son - St. Catherine Street Looking East from Stanley Street, Montreal, QC. 1915 (right)Andrzej Maciejewski - St. Catherine Street Looking East from Stanley Street, Montreal, QC. 2000

The iconic places, however, are a different story. They are recognizable and some have changed drastically. Hence, I compiled a list of the most famous locations around the downtown and intend to employ the idea used by Maciejewski’s and photograph only landmarks, not some random places simply because they have changed a lot. I chose to follow his lead of landmarks since these are the places people use to navigate around the city, the ones they take their children to and the ones that are usually the topic of public debate of someone tries to change them. 

An iconic place, a landmark, is usually something many people can relate to. It has a story that is told and retold and it is most probably photographed more than once so there is an abundance. 

Fig.3 (left) William Notman & Son - Maisonneuve Monument, Place d’Armes, Montreal, QC. 1896 (right)Andrzej Maciejewski - Maisonneuve Monument, Place d’Armes, Montreal, QC 1999

The image above displays exactly what I wanted to show - how something that was once imposing can be dwarfed by the surrounding landscape. Of course, we do not have skyscrapers in Sofia, but we have quite a few places that look like this. Some of the images I have selected resemble the one above of the monument. There is this one thing that is old, once surrounded by buildings that are from the same architectural style and then, 100 later, it is like the odd-one-out.

Loved Maciejewski's approach but still something was missing for me.

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[1] http://www.newyorkchanging.com/

[2] More about the award can be seen here: http://www.scopionetwork.com/pt-pt/node/159?language=en#1