I always get a little warmth inside me when I buy a new photography book and flip the page that has a photograph taken at location I recognize. It first happened when I bought Chris Faust’s Nocturnes, and more recently when I got Stephen Shore’s Uncommon Places.
One of the other books I’ve purchased recently that I found a familiar place in was Tom Arndt’s Home. While turning the pages of the Home I found myself face to face with a photo titled Looking for tall ships, Duluth, 1976.
I knew those stairs. I walk past them all the time while out executing my own street photography. I put the book into my bag, grabbed my camera and went out to rephotograph Tom Arndt.
I got the the location and positioned myself in front of the stairs. Before making an exposure I pulled the book out of my bag to check my footing against the original image. Something was amiss.
In the Arndt photo there is a certain registration between the smokestack of the Duluth Steam plant and the First United Methodist Church .
When I stood at the base of the stairs I believed to be depicted in the photo, the gap between the smokestack and church was far too different to make me think I was in the same spot. I looked to my right and saw that a lamp post which looked identical to the one in the Tom Arndt photo was still standing. I went to inspect it.
A row of trees now obscure the view of the hillside, but I was still able to catch glimpses of the smokestack and church through the branches. I move to my right until I found a spot where the lamp post was up against the edge of the church. At that location the perspective between the smokestack and church was spot on with the Arndt photo. I would not be surprised to have found out that the lamp post may have moved in the past 34 years, but I had serious doubts that the smoke stack and church could have as well. It seemed to me that the only thing that had moved since 1974 was the location of the stairs.
*click*
It was also apparent that Tom was using a much wider angle lens than I had with me. Maybe I’ll go back rephotograph the rephotographed photograph again someday to better match the perspective in the original image.
Related External Links
On Tom Arndt’s Home
On Rephotography
5 Archived Comments
Street view is great for this. In the next rephotography post I have brewing up, I used Street View to canvas the street where a photo was listed as being taken to find the correct spot. Internet is such a great tool.
I like finding street scenes on the internet and then using Google Street View to find the exact spot again. Its fascinating to see cities like New York and Los-Angeles turn from dirt roads into huge cityscapes. It can be quite addictive. Search for the tunnel at 3rd st and Hill st Los Angeles and you sill see what I mean…
Kip,
The pier was widened and reinforced in the early 1980’s. My bet is that the stairs were moved at that time.
Thanks for the bit of history Brandon. There is another photo taken further down the pier in the book. All the concrete appears to be in very rough, crumbling shape. No doubt some reconstruction was in order.
Same sort of thing occcurred when I did one of the Aarons rephoto, the one with the commemorative plaque. I first spot a corner that looked to be the right one, but with a different plaque and took few shots. Only to figure out later on that the wall pattern was indeed different. I had to go back and look for a similar corner, which was not that obvious.
Also doing all those rephoto I realized how difficult it is to match the exact same perspective of an existing shot (actually it is impossible with a different lens)