Teaching > RWU HP150 Historic Preservation > Assignments >

Chace Bank, 2006 and Strand Theater, 1965. Springfield Rewind, Springfield, Illinois. [Mouse-over for "before" image.]

Casual-repeat Photography

Repeat photography is "the practice of finding the site of a previous photography, reoccupying the original camera position, and making a new photograph of the same scene."

Bibliography of Repeat Photography for Evaluating Landscape Change (Rogers, et.el., 1984)

Learning objectives

  1. Apply principles and practices as described by Stewart Brand in How Buildings Learn. Be able to summarize, assess Brand's principles as they pertain to this assignment.
  2. Find archives and research archival photographic resources, compile citaiton information.
  3. Conduct on-site photographic documentation (when possible)
  4. Conduct visual analysis of images.
  5. Develop paper, including pertinent illustrations, analysis and citations.

Instructional materials

Assignment/Assessment

  • Write a paper, approximately four pages, double spaced, with illustrations in an appendix.
  • Place
    • Select a place.
  • Photographs
    • Select at least two (2) high-quality historic or historical photographs of the place.
    • Cite sources of image(s).
    • Justify your selection of photographs. (How do they help understand and interpret the site?).
    • Explain why you think the photographs were taken and how the the photographer's approach (and, if it pertains, the occasion) affect the perception of the place.
    • If a photograph is a 'hard copy' scan the photograph at 300 dpi, color (either as a 'photograph' or 'document').
    • Employing GoogleMap, enable LatLng Marker to provide Latitiude-Longitude (viz: 41.670067, -71.273704) to locate the position of the photographer for each photograph.
  • Take at least one (1) contemporary (now) photograph, if possible. Or select a third (3rd) historic image. Label.
  • Analysis
    • Define, summarize and assess pertinent principles as described in Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn. Especially consider the concept of shearing layers as they apply to buildings—and also how they may apply to environments; here, the built environment).
    • Undertake a detailed analysis of the evolution of the place employing the images, only: not the place itself. (But you can support your analysis by historical research.)
    • Develop, and reference in your analysis, a 'matrix' ("table') to assess a selection of at least five (5) pertinent features such as, but not limited to:
      • building
      • signage
      • streetscape
      • utilities
      • vehicles
      • landscape
      • people
    • Date features in the matrix:
      • Provide their 'relative' date to eachother, and
      • Provide, if possible, a more 'absolute' date based on style, technology, and other cultural and physical indices.
    • Reference historic or contemporanry literature to substantiate your analysis. (Example: general, or city-specific introduction of electricity). This does not have to be detailed.
    • Develop a written analysis of the evolution of the place, backed by your research, including citations (footnotes, bibliography).
      • Consider the broad-scope, macro view of the place's history to inform your analysis.
      • Define the (changing) sense of place.
      • Consider specific factors that influence the changes.
      • In the body of the paper, includes small photo (about 200x300 pixel) details of selected portions of the images, as needed. Do not simply 'shrink" photo, but reduce do it is no more than 75k in size.
      • Reference publications.
  • Report
    • Four-page, 1.5 spaced, report (including bibliography) with an appendix having individual images with citations. Note: reduce size of images, as needed, so the entire document is no more than 4 mb.
    • Digital copy of the report with all images, as a Mircosoft Word file.
    • Email to me with:
      • subject: Casual-repeat photography
      • filename: <150-10_casual_yourlastname.docx>

Reading

  • Brand, Stewart. How Buildings Learn: What happens after they're built. New York: Viking, 1994. Chapters 1 through 6. [View on Amazon.]
  • Shearing Layers, Wilipedia
  • Frank Duffy, WIlipedia
  • O'Neill, R. V., DeAngelis, D. L., Waide, J. B., & Allen, T. F. H. (1986). A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Google books.
  • Rephotography, Wikipedia

Optional Resources

  • Understand the basics of the Harris Matrix. How 'relative' dating of stratigraphic sequences can be achieved.
  • Rogers, Gary F., Harold E. Malde, and Raymond M. Turner. Bibliography of Repeat Photography for Evaluating Landscape Changes, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1984. PDF file (926 k)

Repeat Photopgraphy

Photographs