Rephotography

Rephotography is basically the repeated photography of the same location that was captured years earlier. Rephotography thus is encouraged by the historians. The images (original and the rephotographed ones) when placed side by side will provide the viewer with many narrations of the fact that 'the world is always changing'. The immortality of few subjects can also be depicted by the skill of photographers who reproduce the original images with the use of camera technicalities.

The photographers have their own vision when going for rephotography. Some do capture the contemporary images without any modification that will depict that the subject has changed with the passage of time. The use of different camera and lens from those used in the earlier times also work as factors behind the changes. Camera angle, time of season, lighting, lens, frames and many such factors are taken into account when capturing images for rephotography.

Many photographers have an intention to capture the images in the same texture as in the earlier times. For that purpose, the photographers have to include some landmarks that were found in the original ones. Thus for rephotography, the photographer has to search for the particular position from where the image will not look different. For the success, the photographer even shoots with the usage of the same lens earlier used. The depth of field should also be taken into account for the success of rephotography.

The first recorded work in rephotography was the Rephotographic Survey project, taken up in 1977 by the project's chief photographer, Mark Klett. This project included 120 sites of government survey photographs from the American West recorded in the 1870's for the first time.