Collections

Outstanding rephotographs

Although, rephotography has its origins in landscape change research and specifically in glaciology it is no longer limited to these fields. Today, many rephotographs still feature landscape and urban scenes, but many more applications and subjects exist. A small collection of rephotgraphs of different subjects is covered in my slide set A Collection of Rephotographic Compilations. A commented version exists, too (Both are 17MB pdf).

re.photos

At re.photos you can view the largest online collection of rephotographic compilations. There you can also upload your own rephotographic collections, discuss them with other users, or upload historic images as templates to which other users can rephotograph. The focus of re.photos is on landscape and urban scene. All images are georeferenced and can be displayed on a map. Thus, you can easily check if there are already rephotographs of your hometown.

Own Collection

My own collections of compilations consists of more than 5000 images. Some of these are rephotographs in a narrower sense but also scientific, cultural, artistic and educational projects relating to or applying rephotography are part of the collection. The A Collection of Rephotographic Compilations mentioned above presents a cross section of these images.

In addition to the (digital) compilations described above the collections contains several rephotographic books: Standard works like Third Views Second Sights [M.Klett et al., 2004], in which compilations consisting of historic images taken by the first explores of the American West and two rephotographs are presented. The first rephotographs were taken in the seventies whereas the second rephotographs were taken around the turn of the millennium. Repeat Photography Methods and Applications in the Natural Sciences [R. Webb et al., 2010] is a review of applications of rephotography in geology, climatology, ecology, as well as cultural applications.

Antiquarian books are part of the collection, too: The Western Front Then and Now [A. Insall & G. Watson, 1938], features the reconstruction at the Western front after World War I. The book stands out by showing not the negative change caused by the destruction of war or other causes but the positive change from destroyed to reconstructed. Opposed to that many rephotographs feature negative changes caused by human or natural disasters.

A children's book is also part of the collection: A Street Through Time: A 12,000 Year Journey Along the Same Street[S. Noon & A. Millard, 2012] tells the history of humankind from the Stone Age till today with painted rephotographs of the same street.