Photographs of then and now

Gettysburg

Gettysburg

Toronto. My thanks to Russ Forfar who sent me this very engaging article from the Guardian newspaper in England.

Everyone has heard or seen the famous Gettysburg address by Abe Lincoln. Guardian has created a remarkable site showing before wet plate photographs taken during the American civil war and after photographs taken by David Levene this year. A simple slider dissolves one image into the other and each pair is accompanied by a short video narrative. In each pair of images, a key element helps the viewer during the transition.

The old black and white wet plate prints are sharp and clear. Levene has carefully matched them as to viewpoint and focal length in his colour images. His separate article linked above describes his diligent efforts to recreate the iconic images taken a century and a half ago when tripods, glass plates and horse drawn darkrooms were a must for decent glass plates.

I seen many before and after/ then and now  approaches. Levene’s is clearly one of the better ones. Have a look.

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