Transport Time Travel

By Rebecca Drew

NOSTALGIC images of transport through the ages have revealed a stark contrast between the past and modern day as they have been expertly merged together.

From a 1910s ferry passing the modern iron man sculptures on Waterloo shore, to a group of Victorian men and women waiting at Pier Head for a ferry these pictures document how the transport industry has changed in Liverpool and the UK.

Other photographs in the collection show a horse and carriage waiting at traffic lights on Townsend Lane, a sixties steam train emerging from the Waterloo Warehouses and an old-fashioned car parked on a residential street. Another picture captures a group of air hostesses chatting on the runway outside Speke airport.

The incredible images are the work of Port Captain, Keith Jones (45) from Liverpool. To create his pictures Keith merges old postcards and photographs with his own shots of the same locations in the modern day.

“Where I can, I try to catch as many elements that are specifically of 2016 to accentuate that jarring yet harmonious image,” said Keith.

“Victorians hanging out with millennials is the sort thing I try to portray where possible.

“When I’ve worked out the location of the original photo, I go there and try, as precisely as I am able, to retake the shot from the exact same spot and angle.

“The more accurately I can ‘rephotograph’ the scene, the easier it is later to merge the two photos from the different eras.”

Keith explains that his passion for merging the old and new does not come without its risks.

“Almost getting run over is an occupational hazard sometimes,” he said.

“Where a Victorian or Edwardian photographer may have once stood on a single lane track to take a photo with only horse drawn traffic to avoid, to recreate it precisely in modern times might entail me standing on a busy three or four lane road.

“Timing is everything.”

For more information see: www.facebook.com/LiverpoolThenAndNow

Click to licence image.