Do you know what re-photography is? This art form is a more or less modern practice that tries to capture, through the photographic lens, glimpses, places that were crystallized in the past and that are now re-offered. A fascinating “before and after” operation that tells better than a history book how everyday life and society change with the inexorable passage of time. Here are 20 particularly fascinating examples.
#1. How were the trenches dug in WWI, and what they look like now.
image credit: unknown/Reddit
#2. 20 years of difference in the city of Moscow.
image credit: Tfue2/Reddit
#3. The devastation of World War II in the city of Hiroshima and its well-deserved rebirth.
image credit: wdsoi/Reddit
#4. My grandpa up in Tokyo, me down in the same place 73 years apart.
image credit: unknown/Reddit
#5. The Arctic Circle over 100 years ago … and today.
image credit: unknown/Reddit
#6. The archaeological site of Chichen Itza at the end of the 19th century and today.
image credit: unknown/Reddit
#7. In the 1920s it was Hollywoodland, now it’s just … Hollywood!.
image: TodgerNodger/Reddit
#8. The island of Urk in the Netherlands in 1930 and today, in 2020.
image credit: unknown/Reddit
#8. Singapore in 2000, compared to today’s megalopolis!
image credit: unknown/Reddit
#9. Although it’s been over 70 years, it doesn’t seem like a lot has changed in my hometown street.
image credit: Unknown/Reddit
#10. Oxford in 1810 and the British city in 2015: that hasn’t changed much!
image credit: theredrover2/Reddit
#11. A glimpse of Kabul in 1967, and today devastated by the passage of the Taliban.
image credit: KyserSoze94/Reddit
#12. A racing circuit in Charlotte, USA decades ago … and what it looks like today!
image credit: dominicmannphoto/Reddit
#13. My mother in 1991 and I in 2017: same place, same pose: Schönbrunn Palace near Vienna
image: benjamin-he/Reddit
#14. Nuremberg in very dark times for history … and today
image credit: KLeekz/Reddit
#15. 25 years apart, same place: my father and I in front of the Taj Mahal!
image credit: aradhya23 / Reddit
#16. Before there were only endless campaigns, now we can talk to our neighbors
image credit: FrostedKrispie/Reddit
#17. The city of Dresden during WWII … and today
image credit: SirAlex/Reddit
#18. The hallway of my primary school: from the 1970s to today!
image credit: Xepa / Reddit
#19. North Chicago was once completely rural, now urbanization has taken off!
image credit: jay_m/Reddit
Time flies inexorably, doesn’t it?