thenandnow

Colorizing B&W Photos Then and Now, From Oils to Neural Filters

The day after photography was invented in 1839, somebody pointed out that the photographs were just shades of gray – there was no color. The photography inventors knew this was a problem and probably hoped that no one would notice. Paintings were in vivid color and if photography was ever to compete with painting, there needed to be some color in them.

Repeat Photos Show Change in Southern African Landscapes

Every place in the world has a history. To understand it in the present you need some knowledge of its past. The history of the earth can be read from its rocks; the history of life, from the evolutionary histories and relationships of its species.

Recreating a 108-Year-Old Landscape Photograph

The Brisbane Water National Park on the Central Coast of Australia is such a beautiful place to be, and Somersby Falls is one of the most popular destinations. It’s not hard to see why. So when I stumbled across a 108-year-old picture of one of my favorite waterfalls in the park, I and decided to try and recreate it to see what had changed, and what had stayed the same.

Passed Tents: Then-and-Now Photos of the Civilian Conservation Corps

It was, for most of them, the first happy time in their lives, and for some, the last and only. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as part of his New Deal, penned the Civilian Conservation Corps into existence. Its primary goal was job creation: young men, aged 17-28, could sign up to work as unskilled laborers, usually on projects to develop the nation’s national parks and forests.

Then-and-Now Photos of Communist Berlin

To mark 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, we revisited the precise locations of 10 memorable photos taken when half of the city lay behind the Iron Curtain.

Early Photos vs. Now: Seeing Progress as a Photographer

Whelp! The Internet reminded me a few days back that I’ve officially been shooting photography for over 10 years now. I’ll be honest, I thought my progress would have been further. I assume the end of my life will be something like what I am currently experiencing, which is “Wow, that went fast.” It seems I’m just barely starting to grasp the wise words of my elders when they told me “Time goes quicker than you think.”

Family Recreates Photos from 20 Years of Visiting Disney World

Emmy-award winning filmmaker and talk show host Tammy Tuckey has visited Walt Disney World over 15 times starting in 1998. During their latest 6 days there, the family recreated over 100 photos and videos from their memories over the past 2 decades. What resulted is this heartwarming 4-minute then-and-now music video titled "Remember the Magic" (with Tuckey herself covering the Disney song).

Time Travel Photos: Retracing My Late Father’s Footsteps After 35 Years

My name is Phalgun Polepalli, and I'm a professional wedding photographer in Bangalore, India. After losing my dad exactly 20 years ago in a tragic car accident, I recently did a personal photo project that helped me reconnect with him. On my father's 70th birthday anniversary, I retracted his footsteps in Paris.

Photographer Photoshops Himself Into His Childhood Photos

What would your childhood photos look like if you could travel back in time right now and be there when they were shot? Photographer Conor Nickerson decided to use his photography and Photoshop skills to find out. For his new project Childhood, Nickerson seamlessly inserted himself in old childhood snapshots from nearly 20 years ago.

Photographer Revisits Refugee Crisis Scenes 18 Months Later

Back in December 2015, photographer Kevin McElvaney visited Turkey and Greece to document scenes of the ongoing refugee crisis. Wondering how things have changed over the past year and a half, McElvaney decided to revisit the exact same locations in June 2017 to rephotograph them.

Recreated Family Photos from Around the World

Then-and-now photo recreations have become extremely popular online over the past several years. Especially with rephotographed family photos from decades past, the concept offers a fascinating look at how people have changed over the years.

Photographer Tracks Down Strangers He Shot 40 Years Ago

Starting about 40 years ago, photographer Chris Porsz began shooting street portraits of strangers he met in his hometown of Peterborough in England. For the past few years, Porsz has been tracking down those subjects and asking them to pose for recreations of those decades-old photos. The ambitious project is titled Reunions.

I Reshot Old Photos to See How China Has Changed Over 100 Years

When most people travel, they think of travelling to a destination. Whether it’s climbing Mt. Fuji, gawking at the frescoes in the Vatican, or relishing spicy cuisine in Thailand, most people think of the destination for what it has to offer, from culture to scenery to sensational experiences.

Phil Collins Reshot All His Original Album Covers for the 2016 Reissues

Famed musician Phil Collins began reissuing some of his most loved albums in November of 2015 as part of a collection called "Take a look at me now..." But keen-eyed fans of Mr. Collins noticed something curious about the reissues: the Phil Collins on the new album covers looks quite a bit older.

People from 1900s Detroit Photos Photoshopped Into Modern Day Ruins

The city of Detroit, Michigan has gone through huge economic and demographic changes over the past century. Once a booming car-making city with 1.85 million residents back in the 1950s, the beaten-down city had just 700,000 in 2013.

Hungarian photographer and retoucher Flora Borsi wanted to capture the city's challenges in images, so she combined vintage photos from 1900s with modern day pictures she made on recent visits.

Two Wedding Photos Recreated 40 Years Later

Earlier this month, Reddit user magic976's parents celebrated their 40th anniversary as husband and wife. To mark the occasion, they decided to recreate two photos from their wedding day back in 1975.

A Magical Then-and-Now Journey Through Portland

"Then and now" photo projects are all the rage these days, but the video above puts a unique spin on the idea. It's titled "Yesterday's Tomorrow: A Portland Journey," and is a magical tour of Portland, Oregon, with vintage photographs weaved into modern day video of different places in the city.

Photographer Reshoots Some of the Oldest Surviving Photos of New York

For the past two years, photographer Jordan Liles has been researching the life and work of George Bradford Brainerd, a lesser-known 19th-century photographer who shot 2,500 photos of New York before he died in 1887 at the age of 42.

Starting in 2013, Liles has also been visiting the locations of Brainerd's photos -- some of the oldest surviving images of New York -- recreating the shots to show how New York has changed over the past 140 years.

Then-and-Now Photos Capture How Illinois Tornado Victims are Rebuilding Their Lives

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Back in November 2013, an EF4 tornado tore through Illinois, killing several people and destroying hundreds of homes. Photojournalists at the Journal Star in Peoria, Illinois captured numerous photographs documenting the devastation from both the ground and the air.

Last month, at the one year anniversary of the disaster, those same photojournalists went out and rephotographed those same scenes. The resulting before-and-after photos document the process the community has made in rebuilding their lives.

Rephotographing Route 66: Animated GIFs Showing 1930-1970 Scenes Compared to Today

Route 66 is a famous highway that crosses the United States, connecting Santa Monica, California on the west with Chicago, Illinois toward the east. It was one of the original highways of the US Highway System.

The route is also the subject of a project by photographer Natalie Slater, titled "The Mother Road Revisited." Slater found old photos of the route from decades ago and rephotographed them as they appear today.

Using Printed Video Game Screenshots to Creatively Juxtapose 1790s and Modern Day Paris

Then & Now style photo series are anything but uncommon, but what if the "then" you want to compare to "now" happened before the invention of photography? You would think that would be a deal-breaker, but one computer graphics manager and gaming enthusiast found a way around this issue.

For his 'Then & Now' series, Damien Hypolite printed out screenshots from the game Assassin's Creed Unity -- which is based during the French Revolution -- and then went around holding them up against modern-day Paris.

Timera Allows Users to Create Then & Now Photographs with Ease on iOS and Android

Timera 2 is the second iteration of a rather unique then-and-now compositing app that crowdsources photographs from around the globe and allows you to easily document the changes that have taken place in the world around you over the decades.

Through a massive user-generated database of historical images, appropriately geotagged to their location, Timera users can create unique then-and-now photos by overlaying the archive photo with a photo they just took.