RE-PHOTOGRAPHY

Rephotography is the act of repeat photography of the same site, with a time lag between the two images; a "then and now" view of a particular area. Paired images are a key source for primary history to develop concepts of similarity/difference and change and continuity. Below are some paired images of the Shropshire Union Canal at Tower Wharf in Chester. This is a site I have been using for exemplar fieldwork for some time and the pairs of images show how it has been re-developed over recent years. The developments have not been without controversy and, although their scale probably matches the warehouses in this area in the past, the architecture is very much 21st Century (with some nods to the past) rather than a reconstruction.