As I was creating the photographs for the “After the Memories” exhibit, I was concerned if I had enough of my vintage images to fill the gallery at the Page Walker Arts and History Center. That concern was resolved when I remembered how I selected images for the second version of the Labyrinth project. Labyrinth 1.0 was made up of single images, Labyrinth 2.0 was triptychs. The selection criteria were different for both projects. Some single images were in both projects, some images were only in one project and some images made neither project.
This change in selecting images was made much easier by giving me a broader set of criteria from which to work.
And then another change. As I was creating the images for this show, I wondered about the changes over a much longer period of time. I began to look at the historical images in Cary’s town archives. As I went through the historical images I knew I had the images to make the re-photographic project I originally envisioned. I decided I would place the historical images within a contemporary panorama to provide a modern context for the historical image. This became the second part of the project.
Keeping a mind open for inspiration as the project continued through its “work and detail” phase allowed me to bring my original vision to light.
Chatham Street 1953 and 2018. The fun part about these blended images is the humor of seeing the old and new coexisting in the same frame. The "Shopping Center" building has been standing there since at least 1927 and is still being used today.
Creating the layered images combining the historic and contemporary images was a fun part of the project. The historic images were adjusted for contrast in Light Room and I applied a platinum toning to the historic images. Then, I made a series of exposures at the location of the historic photograph. From there it was back to Light Room to make the panorama. I exported the panoramic and the adjusted historic photograph. I layered the historic image on top of the panorama in PhotoShop. There was a lot of skewing, free transforming and stretching to make the historic images line up with the new images. Once the layers were aligned I added some "gradient reveal all" to soften the transition between the historic image and the contemporary panorama. It turned out that not all the current locations and the historic photographs were compatible. I only wound up with about ten or twelve layered images that “worked.” I wanted to give the audience a view of Cary that was both historic and contemporary. A view where both the past and present were displayed in the same frame.
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