Learning the art of repeat photography

In action taking a repeat photograph from Victoria Road near Clifton First Beach (Photo by M. Smeets)

On Tuesday, 17th March, Petra de Abreu, Mark Smeets (a Dutch volunteer at the PCU) and I spent a few hours in the field learning the art of finding and taking an exact repeat of a historical photograph, from well-seasoned repeat photographer Sam Jack. We quickly discovered that this skill requires a lot of patience, diligence and a very fine eye for details – not suited for the ‘happy snapper’…!

Our first stop was at Clifton First beach. The historical image we were trying to match was from the South African Army Service Corps album, taken between 1899 and 1902 (the images were sourced from the South African Library, which also holds the copyright for these images). We soon found the general vicinity of where the photograph was taken from but then it was down to the hard work of locating the exact position of where photographer stood – over 100 years ago. Luckily there were some large boulders in the historical photographs which we could match up, although the level of sand had changed. Sam guided us through this whole process and gave us some excellent tips and pointers in how to taking a repeat photograph. For those of you with a further interest – visit our project on repeat photography (rePhotoSA) or have a look at these detailed guidelines for taking a repeat photo.

The second historical photograph we were trying to repeat, had a similar view to the first, but was taken from a higher vantage point. We headed back up to Victoria Road, and after a short walk, we found a lookout point where we assume the original photographer had stood. Petra tried her hand at taking the repeat and produced some excellent results. 

So, here are the set of repeat images which were taken more than 100 years apart! Copyright of both the original photographs is held with the South African Library: Cape Town campus so unfortunately we cannot upload these originals onto our website.

The view at Clifton First Beach (Original photograph from the South African Army Service Corps album, taken between 1899 and 1902 - copyright held by the South African Library; repeat photograph by Sam Jack, 2015).

 

Another view from higher up on Victoria Road (Original photograph from the South African Army Service Corps album, taken between 1899 and 1902 - copyright held by the South African Library; repeat photograph by Petra de Abreu, 2015).

Article by Esther Mostert