WIP development - when the place is unrecogniseable

I have always been a fan of places that have changed a lot over time. You simply walk into the place and see that it has been quite different from what you see now. That was one of the drives behind my idea to do a re-photography project - to show how different places were a few decades (or in my case - a century) ago. 

Naturally, one of the first images that I selected for my FMP were the ones that are unrecognizeable - the ones that make you gape and say "wow". I love such images because they make people stop and think. So I started looking for images that made me stop and think. 

One of the first ones I selected saw this one - of Lavov most, now one of the busiest crossrads in Sofia. The pic is taken directly after the Liberation. 

Source: http://www.lostbulgaria.com/?p=2891

I tried to re-do the shot and it was a disaster (not because the shot does not work BUT because the place looks totally different and I cannot re-create the same angle. I love the old image and the totally different reality is shows and I wanted to juxtapose it to the modern landscape. 

The work I produced though, taught me two things -  that the first thing you need to look for in an image to rephotograph is the angle you use. If it is taken from a weird angle, chances are that you will not be able to recreate it. As it was in my case. 

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I was really eager to create that image since the place is really famous and the original image makes your jaw drop. However, once I went there it turned out that the angle I am looking for is not exactly possible since the photographer 140 years ago climbed atop a roof of a house nearby. A really clever technique, I must admit. However, nowadays the bride is surrounded by the police headquarters (I cannot get access to the roof or the insides in any way since it is a restricted building) and a brothel (I am not joking, it is a real brothel (and as you can quess I was not exactly keen on getting inside). 

This was one image but the other one that was totally inappropriate. The central railway station in Sofia that existed up till the 1970 when it was demolished to make way for the new, bigger one. My father remembers the old railway station and even today regrets that it got demolished.  

I really wanted to re-create the place since I was curious how the place looked like before that Communist nonsense was created ( I am being judgemental but there is not other way to name a ton of concrete and steel with no design whatsoever). And so I found a picture. The one below: 

Source - http://www.lostbulgaria.com/?p=76

This picture was taken in the 1930s when the railway station was relatively new. The place was built by Viennese architects and was really fashionable when it was created. And it looks really old and interesting. However, in the 1970s, during a weird drive for innovation and modernization of the totalitarian regime wanted to expand the lines and create 4 new ones (the old station was not designed for the new train traffic). They could have done a ton of things but instead what they did was to demolish the old building and build a new one - more "modern" and spacious. The new design (see below) was mostly inspired by the "Socialist realism" so the place to me looks totally grotesque:  

To me, everything about that place is ridiculous. The design, the "monument" which makes no sense and the passage that is littered with beggars and criminals. Most towns in Bulgaria have kept their old railway stations as a token of their long history. Not Sofia though. That new "thing" is much more like a joke. You can see for yourself. 

I can talk a lot about this place and how the architectural heritage was destroyed to build something politically appealing but otherwise total rubbish. The main problem here was that even though I wanted to raise awareness with this image, the place was unrecognizable and the angle could not be re-created. Unfortunately for me. To top it all, the railway station is at a very busy road so you cannot step back and just take a shot.

There were other locations like that that I simply could not use for this reason. After all, the point of re-photography is to have something that is in common.