Wisconsin Then and Now: The Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Rephotography Project

This lavish visual celebration of Wisconsin pairs one hundred historic photographs with one hundred recent photos by some of the state’s finest present-day documentary photographers and photojournalists. This comprehensive and creative rephotography project  documents in extraordinary and inventive ways rural and urban landscapes, communities, and social activities over the course of 150 years.

Whether portraying past and present immigrants, changing Main Streets, "modern" kitchens, prize cows, Kohler plumbing fixtures, or Green Bay Packer fans, these photographs document both continuity and change. Wisconsin Then and Now includes essays by Nicolette Bromberg, who conceived and oversaw the three-year rephotography project, and by geographers Thomas R. Vale and Steven Hoelscher who comment on the evolving cultural and physical landscape as seen through the lens of a camera.

Drawn from the vast photograph collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society, the older photographs are complemented by new work from more than twenty photographers, whose own notes add fascinating commentary to many of the photographic pairs.

Nicolette Bromberg is curator of photography and graphics at the University of Washington. She was formerly curator of the Visual Materials Archive at the Wisconsin Historical Society, where she directed the Sesquicentennial Rephotography Project and participated in the development of the H.H. Bennett Studio Historic Site.