Depicting change. Rephotography reviewed
1
Holger Vaga, Seasons Project HDR, selection of photographs taken between September 25 th , 2008, and May 26 th , 2009. 5 Depicting change. Rephotography reviewed Photography has ever since its invention been used to extend the borders of human visual perception of time. It can render graspable processes that are both too fast or too slow for the human eye or consciousness. For the phenomena such as changes in landscape time-lapse photography or rephotography are used. When time-lapse photography consists of many shots taken at a certain interval and it is ordinarily presented in an animated form in order to perceptually speed up the process it is depicting, rephotography aims to demonstrate the change as a result, to give a comparison of then and now. Although the distinction between the two methods is not strict, time-lapse photography is rather an intentional approach of one single author while rephotography has not to be performed by the photographer of the initial shot that can originate from the past years before its repetition. The rephotographic method as such was very consciously put to use in France already in the last quater of the 19 th century for the purpose of evaluating the success of the reforestation process on the mediterranean slopes 1 , more recently it's been employed for similar, very applied reasons in Finland for the monitoring of the changing rural (previously) agricultural landscapes 2 . But the term 'rephotography' was made known by a team of american photographers in the end of 1970s and beginning of 1980s with their Rephotographic Survey Project which tracked down the vantage points of the famous photographs of American West and reshot the views captured first during the expeditions a century before. Of these rephotographers Mark Klett (with actually a background in geology) gathered a new crew around the turn of the millennia to carry out another round of rephotography to be called the Third View 3 . The primary goal of the rephotography has been to exemplify the changes which have taken place in the environment. In order to achieve that end, that is have the difference stand out best, the similitude of the original photograph and its later repetition has to be maximized. That is why not only the vantage point and perspective but also the time of the year and light conditions have to be mimicked, as all the deviations (e.g. different shadows) would mislead the detection and identification of change. The second and third views of Mark Klett et al. are meticulously precise repeated photographs, but this kind of exact rephotography actualises the object of the representation, i.e. landscape, environment, while hiding many aspects of the photographic practice itself. Following the steps of their earlier colleagues the thirdviewers started to reflect upon the subjective role of the photographers in creating the public images of the iconic landscapes, about the embodied values in their choices of view-points etc. If only the old views are reiterated the resulting overall image has its specific bias as the changed pattern of meanings in the landscape will not be revealed (for instance new landmarks inexistent at the time of the initial photographing). Thus the emergence of a 'new', contextual rephotography during and after the Third View project, which stepped out from the ideological and pictorial borders of the 'old', exact rephotography and started to stress the presence of photographers by including autoportrayal and by creating panoramic collages of contemporary and historic pictures. In this contextual approach also the ephemeral phenomena and qualities of landscapes came into view. Rephotographic diptychs or triptychs have a powerful narrative potential—on one hand the connections for building up narrative are easily accessible for the viewer, and comparing pictures, looking for similarities and differences is very engaging (in that sense the rephotographic sets are less hermetic than single photographs), but on the other hand the interpretation is (although implicitly transparent) strongly channelled (and therefore limited). Peeter Linnap, for instance, has complimented Peeter Tooming's rephotographic project "55 years later" in the footsteps of Carl Sarap for its wittiness for leaving all the responsibility for the conclusions solely to the viewers, 4 although the intentional value- ladenness of the chosen rephotographic method is quite explicit in the introductions of the book series "55 years later" by Tooming himself. From left to right: Timothy O'Sullivan, 1872. Green River Buttes, Green River, Wyo. (United States Geological Survey) Mark Klett and Gordon Bushaw for the Rephotographic Survey Project, 1979. Castle rock, Green River, Wyo. Mark Klett, Kyle Bajakian, Byron Wolfe and Toshi Ueshina for the Third View Project, 1997. Castle rock, Green River, Wyo. Byron Wolfe and Mark Klett for the Third View Project, 2000. Panorama from O’Sullivan’s “Canyon of Lodore” camera position. Inset: Timothy O’Sullivan, 1872. Canyon of Lodore, Green River, Wyoming. Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, 2007. Panorama from Hopi Point on the Grand Canyon, made over two days extending the view of Ansel Adams. Right: Ansel Adams, 1941, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. (Courtesy of the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ) Vahur Puik www.google.com/profiles/vahur.puik [email protected] Centre for Landscape and Culture Estonian Institute of Humanities Tallinn University 1 cf. Restaurer la montagne: photographies des eaux et forets du XIX e siècle. 2004. Paris, Arles: Somogy éditions d'art, Museun Arlaten. 2 cf. Heikkilä, Tapio 2007. Visual monitoring of Finnish landscapes. Photographic documentation of changes in cultural landscapes. Helsinki: Taideteollinen korkeakoulu Musta taide. 3 www.thirdview.org 4 Linnap, Peeter 2007. Kontseptualism ja Eesti dokumentalistika. – Silmakirjad: kirjutisi fotograafiast ja visuaalkultuurist 1986–2006. Tartu: Tartu Kõrgem Kunstikool, p. 60. 5 www.flickr.com/photos/holger14/sets/72157611794128879/ Poster available at www.slideshare.net/puik
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Transcript of Depicting change. Rephotography reviewed
Holger Vaga, Seasons Project HDR, selection of photographs taken between September 25th, 2008, and May 26th, 2009.5
Depicting change. Rephotography reviewedPhotography has ever since its invention been used to extend the borders of human visual perception of time. It can render graspable processes that are both too fast or too slow for the human eye or consciousness. For the phenomena such as changes in landscape time-lapse photography or rephotography are used. When time-lapse photography consists of many shots taken at a certain interval and it is ordinarily presented in an animated form in order to perceptually speed up the process it is depicting, rephotography aims to demonstrate the change as a result, to give a comparison of then and now. Although the distinction between the two methods is not strict, time-lapse photography is rather an intentional approach of one single author while rephotography has not to be performed by the photographer of the initial shot that can originate from the past years before its repetition.
The rephotographic method as such was very consciously put to use in France already in the last quater of the 19th century for the purpose of evaluating the success of the reforestation process on the mediterranean slopes1, more recently it's been employed for similar, very applied reasons in Finland for the monitoring of the changing rural (previously) agricultural landscapes2. But the term 'rephotography' was made known by a team of american photographers in the end of 1970s and beginning of 1980s with their Rephotographic Survey Project which tracked down the vantage points of the famous photographs of American West and reshot the views captured first during the expeditions a century before. Of these rephotographers Mark Klett (with actually a background in geology) gathered a new crew around the turn of the millennia to carry out another round of rephotography to be called the Third View3.
The primary goal of the rephotography has been to exemplify the changes which have taken place in the environment. In order to achieve that end, that is have the difference stand out best, the similitude of the original photograph and its later repetition has to be maximized. That is why not only the vantage point and perspective but also the time of the year and light conditions have to be mimicked, as all the deviations (e.g. different shadows) would mislead the detection and identification of change. The second and third views of Mark Klett et al. are meticulously precise repeated photographs, but this kind of exact rephotography actualises the object of the representation, i.e. landscape, environment, while hiding many aspects of the photographic practice itself. Following the steps of their earlier colleagues the thirdviewers started to reflect upon the subjective role of the photographers in creating the public images of the iconic landscapes, about the embodied values in their choices of view-points etc. If only the old views are reiterated the resulting overall image has its specific bias as the changed pattern of meanings in the landscape will not be revealed (for instance new landmarks inexistent at the time of the initial photographing). Thus the emergence of a 'new', contextual rephotography during and after the Third View project, which stepped out from the ideological and pictorial borders of the 'old', exact rephotography and started to stress the presence of photographers by including autoportrayal and by creating panoramic collages of contemporary and historic pictures. In this contextual approach also the ephemeral phenomena and qualities of landscapes came into view.
Rephotographic diptychs or triptychs have a powerful narrative potential—on one hand the connections for building up narrative are easily accessible for the viewer, and comparing pictures, looking for similarities and differences is very engaging (in that sense the rephotographic sets are less hermetic than single photographs), but on the other hand the interpretation is (although implicitly transparent) strongly channelled (and therefore limited). Peeter Linnap, for instance, has complimented Peeter Tooming's rephotographic project "55 years later" in the footsteps of Carl Sarap for its wittiness for leaving all the responsibility for the conclusions solely to the viewers,4 although the intentional value-ladenness of the chosen rephotographic method is quite explicit in the introductions of the book series "55 years later" by Tooming himself.
From left to right:Timothy O'Sullivan, 1872. Green River Buttes, Green River, Wyo. (United States Geological Survey)Mark Klett and Gordon Bushaw for the Rephotographic Survey Project, 1979. Castle rock, Green River, Wyo.Mark Klett, Kyle Bajakian, Byron Wolfe and Toshi Ueshina for the Third View Project, 1997. Castle rock, Green River, Wyo.
Byron Wolfe and Mark Klett for the Third View Project, 2000. Panorama from O’Sullivan’s “Canyon of Lodore” camera position. Inset: Timothy O’Sullivan, 1872. Canyon of Lodore, Green River, Wyoming.
Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, 2007. Panorama from Hopi Point on the Grand Canyon, made over two days extending the view of Ansel Adams. Right: Ansel Adams, 1941, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. (Courtesy of the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ)
Vahur Puikwww.google.com/profiles/[email protected]
Centre for Landscape and CultureEstonian Institute of HumanitiesTallinn University
1 cf. Restaurer la montagne: photographies des eaux et forets du XIXe siècle. 2004. Paris, Arles: Somogy éditions d'art, Museun Arlaten.2 cf. Heikkilä, Tapio 2007. Visual monitoring of Finnish landscapes. Photographic documentation of changes in cultural landscapes. Helsinki: Taideteollinen korkeakoulu Musta taide.3 www.thirdview.org4 Linnap, Peeter 2007. Kontseptualism ja Eesti dokumentalistika. – Silmakirjad: kirjutisi fotograafiast ja visuaalkultuurist 1986–2006. Tartu: Tartu Kõrgem Kunstikool, p. 60.5 www.flickr.com/photos/holger14/sets/72157611794128879/
Poster available at www.slideshare.net/puik
