Composite Rephotography

The image above is a combination of an archival photograph of the University of British Columbia’s Main Library and one taken onsite several decades later.

First, I browsed the UBC Photographic Archives for images relating to the Main Library.

I found the following image from 1925 by Stuart Thompson (UBC 1.1/1057). I selected this as my “Time 1” (T1) photo.

I downloaded the photo (see button on image above, top left) and saved it to my Camera Roll on my iPad. I then visited the Main Library and determined the approximate location and vantage point of the original photo (T1) to take my own photo (T2).

I then imported the T1 and T2 photos in the Union photo layering app on my iPad. The T1 photo  was used as the background and the T2 as the foreground. The T2 photo was aligned, using the room’s architectural details as a guide. The “eraser” tool was used to blend the edges of the T2 image to create the final composite.

The final composite was exported from Union and saved in my Camera Roll to upload to Twitter and Instagram.

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