This Friday afternoon (April 6, 2012) while visiting the MOHAI library with Ron Edge to process illustrations for the second volume of Rich Berner’s “Seattle in the 20th Century” series, I took a break and revisited the “Repeat Photography” exhibit that Jean, Berangere and I curated. The exhibit opened last April, and so it is now up nearly a year. For it and much else at MOHAI we recommend visiting the museum before the doors are closed mid-June next. I took from the hip snapshots of all the exhibit’s parts and include a very few here to make the point.
Our exhibit is made from four parts: the world (represented by Paris, France), Washington State, Seattle and its Wallingford neighborhood.
The Paris part of the show begins inside the front door. It includes the oldest example of cityscape, a 1838 look down on Boulevard du Temple from Daguerre's Diorama Magic Theatre. Louis Daguerre, the photographer, is considered the parent of photography, sharing his techniques with the French Academy for the honor and a worthy stipend. Click this twice, and you should be able to read the exhibit's own caption on the right. Jean's repeat of the historical view that looks west on the Columbia to Mt Hood from Maryhill shows the same curving grades for the experimental paved road that climbed from the river to the farm plateau above it. Again, the caption - with a few clicks - can be read.The southwest corner of Lake Union before it was filled early in the 20th Century.The map above indicates the route I walked most days for three years beginning in the summer of 2006. In the process I took photographs of about 450 subjects with the same camera and, as best I could, the same composition and position. Some day - I hope - this magnus opus will result in an elaborate presentation of its time photography. At MOHAI about 25 of the subjects are sampled. This sidewalk patch at the southeast corner of Corliss Avenue and 46th Street is one of the 450-plus subjects. A neighbor decorated the patch with small ceramic tiles. The warm lights on top are reflections on the video screen from the exhibit lighting.
Today I also visited many of the museum’s regular exhibits including the “Great Fire of June 6, 1889” mural and a revealing (of age) cross-section of a fallen Douglas Fir.
While Ron continued to do his research in the MOHAI library I took a walk across the MOHAI parking lot to the trail that leads to Foster Island. Below are the bridge to the island and two details taken from very near its west, or MOHAI, end.
At least from the parking lot the best sign that MOHAI is moving is the impressive red van that is parked there. It is marked or signed by the Hansen Bros. movers that started in the University District long ago.
One thought on “REPEAT PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT revisited – before MOHAI MOVES Mid-June Next”
There is a page for Rephotography on Facebook, hope that you all can contribute!
I love your article BTW, imagine how many phases Boulevard-du-Temple has gone through since the 1830s! I’d love to see a decade by decade series charting it’s morphology! 🙂
There is a page for Rephotography on Facebook, hope that you all can contribute!
I love your article BTW, imagine how many phases Boulevard-du-Temple has gone through since the 1830s! I’d love to see a decade by decade series charting it’s morphology! 🙂