Brittany Marcoux and her project ’The Shore Project’ is an intreguing approach to rephotographs. In creating a project that is a homage Shore.

The work is interesting when coupled with the original work by Shore and the shift in time is clear. Buildings have become dated or in many cases replaced by newer structures and it this is where the real interest is in a personal sense.

When observing the images my first experience was to observe the similarities before inspecting the differences. Is it the same structure? What has been replaced? How has the landscape changed?  

Such questions may align with the intentions of Marcoux as she states on her website about the project…

‘I hope to raise many questions such as these and make photographs that offer the visual pleasure of looking as well as provide a way of seeing objective change’. 

I feel that Marcoux has been successful in achieving the objectives she outlines for this project and her accuracy in composing the work provides voracity to the claim of seeing objective change. Relating to my own experience of consuming these works in such a way  Klett et al (2011: P117) offers guidance in order to aid contemplation. 

‘Carefully relocated vantage points result in photographs that convince viewers they are made from the same place, and encourage greater participation in interpret­ing the image contents. By eliminating the variable of where two photographs were made in space, the viewer is free instead to contemplate other differences, such as visible changes between the two views’. 

Klett’s emphasis on the importance of the vantage point represents a clear indicator of the success and voracity of Marcoux’s approach which is one of the central reasons the viewer is able to inspect the shift in time and change.
This work is interesting in furthering awareness of the work of Shore which I suspect that he would be pleased to be acknoledged in this way. Furthermore, the work when positioned side by side may invoke and rejuvonate phantasisms (Baudrillard 1981) in international audiences about American identity and the unique landscape consisting of wilderness, capitalism and a warm climate. 

In a personal sense I found myself making such phantasisms in the recognition of my own experience of living in the USA. The vanacular landscape, romance and poetry of Shore’s images has been capitolised on by Marcoux which has polite interest but it could be argued lacks a personal voice.

Books

Baudrillard, J ( 1994) Simulacra AND Simulation, Michigan, The University of Michigan.

Klett et al (2011) The SAGE handbook of visual research methods (Repeat Photography in Landscape Research), New York, SAGE.

Websites

Marcoux, B (2010) The Shore Project, [online] Available at: https://www.brittanymarcoux.com/statement-3 (Accessed: 5th June 2020)