Rephotography

Rephotography is the act of repeat photography of the same site, with a time lag between the two images; a “then and now” view of a particular area. Some are casual, usually taken from the same view point but without regard to season, lens coverage or framing. Some are very precise and involve a careful study of the original. Rephotography was developed as early as 1850 in the natural sciences to demonstrate environmental change, such as erosion or receding glaciers, and has been applied to fields such as sociology to show social change, usually in the built environment e.g., towns and cities.

Morden day Rephotography can be seen in the McCord Museum of Canadian History’s virtual exhibition “Urban Life through Two Lenses.” It shows the nineteenth-century views of Montreal by William Notman, rephotographed by Andrzej Maciejewski in 2002. Another is Douglas Levere’s project, “New York Changing”; here Levere rephotographed 114 of Berenice Abbott’s, “Changing New York” images.

The French rephotographer Vincent Zénon Rigaud is comparing views of Reims in Champagne before and after the almost complete destruction of the city by first world war bombshells. “Reims avant, pendant et après la première guerre mondiale” Rigaud’s work shows the impact of war on urbanism. War severely damaged The cathedral Notre-Dame of Reims, UNESCO’s utmost masterpiece of Gothic architecture, is still under several heavy restoration processes where accurate rephotography is used as a site supervision and a duty of memory.